Purpose vs. Goals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone on this Earth has a purpose for being here. No one is here “just because.” The beauty of spending time with your creator (Christ) is that you can grow to understand why you were created. The truth is that we all have goals. However, before I leave this Earth, I want to know that I didn’t just do what I could do, I want to know that I did what I was supposed to do. What’s the difference? Achieving goals leaves you with happiness while completing your purpose leaves you with joy (a type of happiness that worldly circumstances can’t have ultimate power over). Completing goals leaves you feeling sustained and content while completing your purpose provides you with an ultimate fulfillment you didn’t even know existed. Lots of us have goals and some of them we think are aligned with God’s plans for our lives but we haven’t really stopped to take the time to ask Him: “Is this what you have planned for me? Is this why I am here on this Earth?”

Yes, you can be passionate about something but it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what you were created to do. Plenty of people are passionate about sex but that doesn’t mean God intended for them to make careers out of it. So, the result is that you have this world full of commotion and people look around and say: “where is God in all this? How could there be a God with all of this mess?” When, in reality, He has never left us, but it us who He gave dominion over this Earth, it is us who never take the time to ask if we are living His will, and it is us who have created this mess.

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a news anchor/reporter. When I was about 5 or 6, I saw Katie Couric when she was on the “Today Show” and somehow instantly knew that was for me. I followed through with it until this year- the year that I began to really spend time with God and desired to have a better relationship with Him. Some would call me crazy for not following through with it. I had interned with CNN three times and was fortunate enough to meet people who were willing and able to help me get far in the business. However, chasing after goals the world’s way will leave you dry and tired. I didn’t want to spend my entire life chasing something that really wasn’t for me in the first place. After getting to know the Lord better, I began to understand His voice. I have only heard God’s audible voice three times in my life but He speaks in my life through people and situations everyday. I knew He was saying He had different plans for me and, if I can just trust Him, they are better than what I can even imagine for myself. Since then, God has led me to begin writing a LOT. Although I didn’t know it, these were the beginning stages of my first novel. You know what I figured out? I prefer writing and using my work to share the message of Christ much more than I prefer pursuing what I thought I wanted. That’s the wonderful thing about living a life for God, you think you have to “give up” so much but, in reality, He’s only allowing you to make room for something better. After all, the creator will always know the creation much better than the creation knows itself.

I am so grateful for this time in the Peace Corps. Since Moroccan society is generally in much less of a hurry than American society, my time here truly provided me the opportunity to just sit, pray and hear the voice of God for hours. This is time I may have not gotten had I immediately started working or gone to grad school after college. Now, I feel as if I have a clear direction of my life that is rooted in something greater than myself. Even though my purpose isn’t entirely completed yet, I already feel fulfilled because of He who lives within me. I don’t feel the desire to complete goals to feel better about myself or to define my self worth by titles of this world. My self worth is defined by something permanent and eternal. Something greater than anything in this world can offer.