Hi there! This post is part of a 31-Day writing adventure I’m embarking on. I’d love for you to join me and read along. You can find the introduction to the series, and a “Table of Contents” as each day goes live, right here. Thanks so much for dropping in!

How much time would you say you’ve spent thinking about what you were created to do? Do you believe you were created with a purpose — that there are actually specific things that only you can accomplish with your time on the Earth?

God creates things on purpose and does things on purpose. This verse is a good example of that truth:

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. {Isaiah 55:10-11}

Observe that the rain and snow are purposefully sent to water the Earth, the seeds are purposefully in existence for the sower (i.e., farmer) and the existence of those seeds makes the possibility of food sprouting from those seeds planted in the Earth a reality — which results in bread for the eater — which lends itself towards the final goal of sustaining life on Earth.

God’s word is also filled with layers of purpose. And here He explains that He sends His word on purpose — perhaps you are reading these very words on this very page as a part of His purpose (I wouldn’t hesitate, really, to remove the perhaps from that statement).

So if the seeds are on purpose, the seasons are on purpose, the day and the night and the cold and the heat, what about you? The carefully crafted man, with life breathed into you from the very lungs of God. The only part of His creation He chose to make in His own image.

Paul explained purpose to the Ephesians this way:

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. {Eph. 2:10}

In high school, my BFF and I spent many an hour of our days together entertaining people. We loved to joke and to laugh, to reenact skits we’d seen on Saturday Night Live and to come up with our own ideas for making people smile, and for creating inspiration.

Today, I still love the opportunity to stand up in front of a group of people and speak (I know that’s kind of weird, but yes, I enjoy {love} public speaking) and I love making people laugh when I have a microphone and half an opportunity. I write because I love to connect with people — I try to infuse humor here and there, but am also careful with it, (perhaps more than I need to be?). I want to entertain, but the deeper purpose for me is to educate and to inspire.

My friend went on to do Improv for a number of years, and even met her husband because of their mutual love for Improv. She has been hard at work creating beauty, most recently, by creating documentaries, which serve the purpose of educating and entertaining. She has always had the gift of vision, of gathering people around a common goal, and, like her (wonderful) Art-Teacher-Mom she seems to constantly create beauty with her life.

So here’s where things get really interesting for those of you trying to find yourself. There is something to be said for aptitude tests and career counseling — they can absolutely help you recognize the strengths and abilities with which you were created. In addition, there’s something to be said for going to the One who created you to find out what your purpose is all about.

If you belong to Christ, if you believe that He was who He said He was and is He Who says He is, then you died to yourself — the old man who you were before you found Him — and those redeeming qualities can begin to shine brighter and brighter.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. {Col. 3:3}

It’s so unexpected, but in His glorious goodness, instead of a constant inward focus, there is so much of your “self” to find by looking to the One who created you.

Your life is hidden in Him. His purposes for you are kept secret and safe in Him, where the enemy of your soul cannot fully see them and therefore attempt to thwart them. Like a map to a treasure that a person memorizes and then burns so that no one else will find it, the map to the life you were created to live is in the heart of God.

Yet another paradox finds us as we look for goodness: You lose yourself in all-out-seeking Him, and there you’ll find the self you’re looking for.

xCC