To find your purpose, you have to do things on purpose. If someone desires to become a medical doctor, he or she cannot just decide that they want to be a doctor and continue to go to Starbucks, drink lattes, and scroll through Instagram all day. They must purpose it in their heart, determine the steps that need to be taken to get on the right path, and then take each step – one by one – to get there. {It’s no coincidence that I just used the word “purpose” three times, each with a different meaning}. 

For this person, Step 1 might be: decide to get a Bachelor of Science degree. Notice I said decide, not get. One step at a time, little grasshopper. They cannot get to Step 2 without going through Step 1.  Likewise, if you are questioning your own purpose or path, you still have to start at Step 1 and then move. Once you start moving, you will likely feel something inside of you shift. If this shift feels like tension, it is probably just some push-back from your old self wanting to feel that good old comfort zone.  Guess what? Keep moving. That comfort zone is nothing more than a trench that you have been laying in and it has been keeping you in the same old place. Do not look back; just keep your head down and keep plowing through the high grass and shrubs to the clearing ahead.

Once you make it past the heavy shrubbery, you may feel like you have reached a place of rest. This is the time period of gathering yourself, your supplies, and making a game plan for the next stretch of brush ahead (again, purpose your purpose on purpose). The dense brush ahead is Step 2. Again, you must go through Step 2 to get to the next step, and so on. You will find that once you jump one hurdle you thought was impossible, getting over the next one feels a bit more familiar. With each obstacle in your path that you must overcome, you may start to grow weary. Do not give in to this feeling, as it is right before the victory that the fighters feel the weakest. Then, at the final pivotal moment of triumph, a surge of adrenaline pushes them through to the destiny that has been calling.    

Feel like you can’t figure out what your Step 1 looks like? Join the club. You are not alone, and neither am I. Do something. Anything. When you start, you will hit moments of “cloudy” — and moments of clarity. Pay attention to them. What makes you feel like it’s too complicated? Is this resistance your trench of “comfort”, or is it simply a stepping stone that requires a little extra effort to get back on the right path? If it’s your “comfort” zone calling you, ignore it. Keep moving. If it’s a hurdle, when you are on the other side you will feel so much stronger. 

Life will not hand you an envelope with “Purpose” written on the front of it. God will not drop a hot lava rock on your head with your “Purpose” engraved on it.  You have to purpose your purpose on purpose.  Meaning, get out there and figure out what Step 1 looks like and DO IT. I’m with you, and most importantly — God is with you! 

~Romans 8:31 (NIV) “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?