Searching for Purpose

Apparently it is becoming increasingly common for people who used to wait until their 40s and 50s to experience a crisis about their lives to experience that crisis in their 20s and 30s. The mid life crisis has become the quarter life crisis

One of the features of the post modern culture in which we now are firmly rooted and living is an increasing sense of the search for purpose and meaning. This quarter life crisis is about a search for meaning and purpose to life.

Many people still haven’t found what they are looking for in their lives.

People in their 20s and 30s are typically getting married later, delaying career decisions until they are older, many are delaying leaving home until later because of the costs of buying or renting a house or flat.

People in their 40s and 50s have an overwhelming choice in what they do with their free time, there are so many leisure activities, travel opportunities, experiences.

Some people have the chance for early retirement.

And yet for all these opportunities many are craving a sense of purpose of meaning.

Dr Hugh Moorhead a philosophy professor once wrote to 250 of the world’s best known philosophers, scientists, writers and intellectuals and he asked them “what is the meaning of life?” His plan was to publish a book with their responses. Some wrote back and offered their best guess, some admitted that they just made something up for the purpose of life to sound good, others were honest enough to say that they were completely clueless and many came back and say “when you find out, can you let us know?”

Can you believe that? Some of the best brains in the world have no real answer to the question of what is the purpose to life?

Let me try and provide a framework to help you think through what might be the purpose to your life.

1. Sails

Through our lives there are some pieces of paper, some documentation that mark our life.

Firstly we have a birth certificate that records the details of our birth – when it happened and where it happened.

If we get a passport we have a document that notes where we live, what we look like.

If we get married, we get a marriage certificate that lists our name and our occupation and where and when and to who we got married.

When we die and death certificate is issued that documents the date and cause of our death.

None of those pieces of document say anything about why we lived. They list where, when, name, relationships, but never a why. Why do we live, why are we here, what are we doing?

Is there more to life than this?

To help us find a framework to discovering a purpose to our lives I want to use a sailing boat as an illustration.

Lets start with the sails.

One possible solution to a the search for purpose is for us to decide just to go with the flow. On a sailing boat the sails catch the wind and if they are left the boat will just go with the flow of the wind. Without careful handling, skilful steering and sail setting the boat will just go with the flow – just go wherever the wind takes it.

One solution to our search for a purpose is just to go with the flow…to allow ourselves to be pushed along by whatever our life circumstances dictate

That’s one way, but I think that there’s a problem with that. There is a great feeling powering along with the boat at an angle with the strength of the wind catching the sails, water lapping over the side of the boat.

But sailing can be frustrating too. There are times when there is no wind and the boat goes no where.

There are other times when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction – its coming from the direction you want to go in and then you have to beat against the wind and tack repeatedly one way and then another to make any headway. It’s incredibly difficult and draining, because on a large boat to tack – to change the sail positions is hard work. To take the boat where you want it to go, you can’t just let the wind take you – you have to harness the wind because the flow of the wind might not take you where you want to go. And if you are not careful, just allowing the wind to blow you along might lead to disaster.

If we allow our lives to just go with the flow we may find we hit the doldrums, we feel like we are getting nowhere or we may find that our lives just get out of control and lead to some enormous crash – maybe in our relationships or in our careers.

In the book of Proverbs which contains passages of wisdom it says “without vision or purpose people perish.”

I think that is so true, without purpose people flounder, if you are just going with the flow with no purpose to your life, you will ultimately flounder, perish.

2. Rudder

In the Bible we read about the life of Paul. He was lacking direction, going with the flow. Suddenly there was a change of direction that provided a greater purpose to his life, provided him and his passions and energies with a new direction.

On the boat we have a rudder and a rudder is the thing that harnesses the power of the wind to take the boat in a certain direction. Using the rudder means that you are no longer just going with the flow, wherever the wind takes you, instead you have a purpose.

I think that to truly discover a sense of purpose to our lives we need to ask what is the rudder that provides the direction.

There are lots of potential rudders out there.

For some its family and friends, others the acquisition of money and material wealth, for others its their vocation, maybe its helping others, maybe it’s the pursuit of happiness.

Its my belief and contention that God can provide that for people.

And its my belief and contention because I have experienced that in my own life.

So often life is what we make it or what we do with it.

What provides my life with a sense of purpose and direction? God does.

Life isn’t just about what I make it. The more I have come to know about God, and more importantly, the more I have experienced him at work in my life, the more my passion for the purpose that I believe he has placed inside of me grows.

As I have understood more about how much God believes in me, how much he loves me, how much he has invested in me, the more passionate I have become for this purpose.

I dream about a church where people are helped and supported, where everyday issues are tackled and talked about, where God is shown to have something to say about life today, where music and drama and media are used to show that God is relevant today in the 21st century.

God has provided me with a purpose and a direction. I wonder if you dream, I wonder if you have dreams that God has placed in side of you that you just wish someone would give you the opportunity to go for.

Do you know what the rudder is in your life? Maybe you do, if you don’t I wonder if you would take the risk of asking God to reveal it to you.

3. Leaving Harbour

Whatever your dream or purpose or direction for your life is, there’s no point having a great dream and then doing nothing about it. There is no point having a sailing boat with sails and a rudder and then leaving it in the harbour.

A sailing boat is no good to anyone that way. There is no point discovering a dream and a purpose to your life and then to sit with that and never do anything about it.

Purpose is no good unless it is followed.

It is not always easy to leave the comfort of the harbour. There is safety in the harbour. There is danger out on the water.

There can be great safety in kind of meandering through life, never taking the risk of following your purpose – never leaving the harbour.

There is danger in living out your dreams and your purpose. It is interesting God doesn’t promise us safety but God does promise us significance if we follow the purpose he has placed in side of us.

God would never choose our safety over our significance.

Have you found the purpose for your life?

Are you willing to take the risk of believing that God has placed inside of you dreams and passions that might lead to you discovering a new purpose and direction for your life?

If you are seeking yours ask yourself these questions:

If I could do anything with my life what would it be?

If I knew that I wouldn’t fail what would I do?

At the end of my life, I would like to be able to look back and know that I had done something about…?

What would your friends say that you were passionate about?

What conversation would keep you talking late into the night?

I hope that by asking yourself those kinds of questions it would help you identify your passions and dreams that I believe God has placed inside of you.

Then I wonder whether you would have the courage to leave the harbour and to pursue those dreams and in doing that whether you might then discover the purpose to your life.

The truth is that everyone searches at some point in their life.

What I have found to be true and believe passionately is that God is searching too. He is searching for people who are prepared to trust him and believe in him and passionately pursue the dreams and purposes that he has placed inside of them.

Auth. Rev Chris Porter

Minister of Easthampstead Baptist Church in Bracknell, England