It all starts with God

For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible… everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. (Col 1:16)

The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions.  If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.  The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That’s because we typically begin at the wrong starting point – ourselves.

We ask self-centered questions like What do I want to be? What should I do with my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my future? But focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose.  Contrary to what many popular books, movies, and seminars tell you, you won’t discover your life’s meaning by looking within yourself. You’ve probably tried that already.  You didn’t create yourself, so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for! If I handed you an invention you had never seen before, you wouldn’t know its purpose, and the invention itself wouldn’t be able to tell you either. Only the creator or the owner’s manual could reveal its purpose.

You cannot arrive at your life’s purpose by starting with a focus on yourself. You must begin with God, your Creator.  It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end.  You were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not your using him for your own purpose.  Many books teach you how to be successful like consider your dreams, clarify your values, set some goals, figure out what you are good at, aim high, be disciplined, believe you can achieve your goals, involve others, never give up, etc., Of course, these recommendations often lead to great success.  You can usually succeed in reaching a goal if you put your mind to it. But being successful and fulfilling your life’s purpose are not at all the same issue!  You could reach all your personal goals, becoming a raving success by the world’s standard, and still miss the purposes for which God created you.


From the Book: The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren