Finding Your Path to Purpose
Photo by Emily Fletke
“Am I really on this planet to be a mildly successful communications professional?”
This question moved in and unpacked like a friend who says they’re only going to stay on your couch for a week but is clearly going to be around for a bit longer. For months in my job, I escaped my fluorescent light-flooded office midday to think deep and soak in some vitamin D on the closest open park bench I could find.
At the time, it seemed like every one of my friends knew their exact reason for existence and most had “World Change” on their life plan. When someone asked me, “What’s your passion? Your purpose?” I retorted that I aimed to make it through the day and be a decent human at the end of it. But each time, the questions caught more in my consciousness, and the idea of wanting to know the “big why” of it all could not be satiated with a flippant response, whether verbalized or lodged in my throat.
TAKE NOTICE OF THE PRICKS
I started with the little stabs. As I contemplated this question of purpose, I noticed things that struck me and stuck with me. I recalled the reason I minored in American Sign Language was because my mentor had said she dreamed of adopting a deaf child. This was the first “prick.” It reminded me of what adoption could mean in my own life as I considered caring for a child that might have a hard time finding a forever family. It called to mind a book called The Family That Nobody Wanted about a Methodist minister and his wife who adopted 12 biracial children in the 50’s and 60’s when this was unheard of. This second jab pointed me again toward adoption, orphan care, and advocacy for kids with no one on their team. And like a tune you can’t stop humming, a third theme that kept repeating itself in my life was a scripture that says pure and faultless religion is simple: to look after orphans in their distress.
BECOME PERSISTENT IN FINDING A PATH
On my path to purpose, I moved from the quiet reminders, themes and stings to persistence. I asked myself what matters to me, and what makes me feel full and free. But also what makes me feel uneasy, and what injustices make my heart especially sink. Then I asked myself a few hundred more times; these revelations pointing me toward the “big why” didn’t come in the course of a leisurely afternoon. Surprisingly, it was months of bench-warming before these memories and thoughts began to materialize into a cohesive place where my heart felt more than just pricked — it felt pierced.
It’s the piercing that leads us to answers on this path to purpose, and to the place where you start to put it all into practice. For me, I jumped into volunteering with nonprofit organizations focused on foster care here in the city and orphan care in the international context. I used my skills as a “mildly successful communications professional” to practice doing what I believe I am meant for — advocating for orphans and kids in foster care.
Practice looks wildly different for each of us. Practice can mean starting a dialogue with others who care about the same thing you do or maybe others that should. Practice can mean giving your time, money, or energy to something that you know you’re the one to nudge forward. Practice can mean starting a nonprofit, joining one as a full-time employee, or being a loyal volunteer.
We all have the chance to do good if we just pay attention to where our hearts and minds feel “pierced” and take that first step toward our purpose. The end of this path is the challenge of whether or not we’ve found the intention for our lives that contributes something worthwhile to the world. The Bible says we were each created to good works prepared in advance for us. If I can find my purpose, so can you. Start down the path now and discover what pricks, persistence, and practices lead you to those good works destined for only you.