Purpose
Have you ever been in your staff room ready to eat your salad for lunch only to find there are no forks available? Improvisation may then take place and a spoon used instead. It does the job, but it isn’t as effective as it might have been.
Sometimes the purpose of our lives can feel like this too. We’re using spoons to get the job done, and it’s working, but it could be much better if we were using forks! As Christian educators, we would often reflect on what we believe the purpose of our life is.
Some people may say ‘to be happy.’ Others may say ‘to leave a legacy.’ Others, ‘to make the world a better place.’
While each of these may be a true and beautiful purpose for our lives, perhaps they are like the spoons that we’re eating our salad with. They’re close to the right utensil, but they’re not quite the right one.
Our true purpose, as Fr Mike Schmitz said, “... Is to know Him (God) and to make Him known.”
Our very lives are living testimonies of God’s goodness and power, and God asks us to share the true story of Jesus with others. This story is not only what Jesus did when He was alive on earth for those 33 years, but also the story of Jesus in the last 2000 years! This story is special because it’s about what He has done in your life. We are called to share this story, and invite others into the knowledge of Jesus that we already have.
Jesus’ purpose is made clear in John 3:16 - ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.’
Holy Week draws our attention to what God has done for us, so that we may have the opportunity to live out our purpose too. God loves us so much and wants to spend time with us, and God desires that we share this love with those in our school and parish communities.
This is our true purpose. To love God, to know God, and to make God known to those around us.
But how do we go about this? Sometimes we don’t realise that someone has unpacked the dishwasher and put the forks back in the drawer. We could be using a fork but we don’t know that it’s right in front of us.
It’s easy to wonder, ‘where do I begin?’ Already, God has revealed to us ways that we can live out this true purpose.
- Pray: Prioritise spending time with God. Even if you give just 5 minutes of your time each day, you will come to know God more, and learn more about yourself in the process.
- Listen: God is speaking to us all the time, so we should practise listening, and being more attentive to the way God is moving in our lives.
- Serve: Through serving others by giving of ourselves and sharing the love of God, we can live out this purpose in a practical way.
As we prepare for Holy Week, we trust that God will guide us and draw our attention to what He has done for us. Let’s pray together that God will give us the strength to live out our true purpose, just as Jesus did.
