Purpose Beacons

A Sense of Purpose

Life is profound and serious business. In the same vein, the earth is a vast playing field, with each of us as a player. We train, play, get injured, sometimes earn a red card, or are eventually substituted. Every human being shares certain conditions in common. We were all placed in this world without prior consent, and we received no training on how to navigate existence.

We are meant to play the game of life, not as children play with sand and objects, simply passing time in self-gratification, but as the Creator of life intends us to play it. Scripture suggests that there is a true way to engage in this game: through purpose.

Yet purpose has become one of the most misunderstood words in our world, often used interchangeably with destiny. Purpose is not merely the profession we choose or the achievements we accumulate. It is not something that belongs to us alone and dies when we do. Purpose is a calling to live beyond ourselves, to use our lives in ways that contribute to the lives of others.

The idea is rooted in the creation story. In Genesis 2:18, God says, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.” Adam was not literally alone. He was surrounded by animals and birds, yet something was still missing. God created Eve as his companion and helper.

From the beginning, human beings were created in relationship with one another. We were not designed merely to exist; we were designed to contribute, to receive, to give, and to participate in something larger than ourselves.

This matters because the world we inhabit is far from the perfection described in creation. It has been disfigured by hunger, injustice, inequality, hatred, hopelessness, and inhumanity. Every day, people encounter circumstances that remind us how much remains broken.

The question, then, is not simply, “What do I want from life?” It is also, “What can my life give?”

A sense of purpose allows us to confront the brokenness around us with compassion. It moves us beyond the desire to survive and toward the desire to make a difference. It calls us to become dispensers of love and hope and to leave the world better than we found it.

When we see suffering and choose indifference, purpose becomes irrelevant. But when we recognize the needs around us and ask what we can do with what we have been given, purpose begins to take shape.

A sense of purpose is therefore more than having something to live for. It is recognizing that how we live can become a gift to other people.

Heeding the Call of Purpose

The first step toward heeding the call of purpose is to recognize that life is temporary.

Life is a fleeting opportunity to be and to do good. Wealth, status, influence, and achievement may accompany us for a time, but none of them can follow us beyond the grave. What remains is what we did with the life we were given.

This is why love is central to purpose.

Every human being, regardless of age, colour, or status, longs for acceptance, dignity, belonging, and kindness. Yet many people live without these basic expressions of human care. We see people in need and sometimes look away because their suffering is inconvenient or because we have convinced ourselves that someone else will help.

But purpose begins when we allow another person’s need to matter to us.

The words attributed to St. Teresa of Calcutta capture this responsibility: “There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our life—the pain of loneliness and lack. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your family. Find them. Love them.”

Love, therefore, is not merely an emotion. It is a decision to recognize the humanity of another person and respond to it.

The second step is to discover what has been placed within us and use it in service of others.

Many people live as though they were created without anything valuable to offer. They compare their abilities with those of others and conclude that their own gifts are too ordinary to matter.

But no gift is insignificant when it is used well.

The parable in Matthew 25:14–30 illustrates this principle. A master entrusted his servants with different amounts of wealth before leaving on a journey. One received five talents, another two, and another one. They were not given equal amounts, but each was given something to steward.

The point is not how much one person receives compared with another. The question is what each person does with what has been given.

Some people are gifted with intelligence. Others have beautiful voices, creative hands, compassion, humour, leadership, patience, courage, or the ability to communicate. Some gifts are immediately visible; others emerge quietly through the way a person responds to people and situations.

What matters is not whether our gifts look impressive. What matters is whether we discover them, develop them, and put them to work.

Purpose becomes clearer when ability meets service.

Those who understand what they are meant to contribute do not easily abandon it. Their calling gives them a reason to continue when circumstances become difficult.

And circumstances will become difficult.

The Storms of Life Will Come

There are certain truths about life that no one can escape. Life is a gift. It is temporary. It gives us an opportunity to improve the lives of others. And it is subject to pain.

The last truth is one we would rather avoid.

From the biblical account of creation, humanity’s existence has been marked by the consequences of disobedience, suffering, toil, and death. After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God declared:

“Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree… cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee… In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

— Genesis 3:16–19

Since then, suffering has been woven into human existence. Poverty, disability, bereavement, unemployment, divorce, failure, disappointment, and painful delays can all become storms in a person’s life. Some arise from our own choices; others arrive without warning or fault.

The important question is not whether storms will come. They will.

The question is what happens to our sense of purpose when they do.

For some, hardship drains their joy and convinces them that life is no longer worth fighting for. Pain can make purpose difficult to see. When everything seems to be falling apart, even the things that once gave life meaning can begin to feel distant.

But there are others who, though wounded by their circumstances, refuse to allow their circumstances to become the final definition of their lives.

They mourn. They weep. They stumble. Then they rise.

Paul expressed this perspective when he wrote, “The things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12). His circumstances did not disappear, but he refused to believe that suffering had made his life meaningless.

History offers countless examples of people who endured extraordinary adversity and continued to contribute something meaningful to the world. Helen Keller lived with blindness and deafness. Nelson Mandela spent decades in prison. Beethoven continued creating music after losing his hearing.

Their stories do not suggest that suffering is good or that pain should be romanticized. They remind us of something simpler: adversity does not have to have the final word.

The storms of life may alter our plans, slow us down, or force us to begin again. But they do not automatically erase our purpose.

Sometimes the storm changes how we fulfil it.

Will It Be Worth It in the End?

Certain questions have troubled human beings across generations: What is the purpose of life? Why do we struggle? Will all this pain be worth it in the end?

Ecclesiastes wrestles openly with these questions. Solomon reflects on the apparent futility of human labour and the temporary nature of everything people pursue. Yet after examining the vanities of life, he arrives at his conclusion:

“Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”

— Ecclesiastes 12:13

The conclusion is significant. Life may be temporary, unpredictable, and filled with suffering, but that does not make it meaningless.

For the Christian, purpose ultimately begins and ends with God.

We were created to know Him, obey Him, and love others. Jesus reduced the heart of God’s command to love: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” And when He spoke of caring for the vulnerable, He made the connection even clearer: “Whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do for me” (Matthew 25:40).

This means that purpose cannot be measured only by wealth, recognition, position, or influence.

A person may become wealthy and still fail to live meaningfully. Another may never become famous and yet spend a lifetime changing the lives of people around them.

The question is not simply, “What did I achieve?”

It is also, “Who was better because I lived?”

Life is a gift, but it is also transient. Our today can become history tomorrow. Whatever opportunities we have to love, serve, create, encourage, build, and give will not remain open forever.

The storms will come. Some will be unfair. Some will be painful. Some will change the direction of our lives.

But the existence of storms does not make the journey pointless.

Purpose gives us a reason to keep going. It gives our gifts somewhere to go and our suffering somewhere to lead. It turns existence into contribution.

And when our lives finally come to an end, perhaps the greatest measure of a purposeful life will not be what we accumulated for ourselves, but what we gave away.

What we do for ourselves dies with us.

What we do for others can continue long after we are gone.

Collection: Literesque Prize 1, Creative Nonficion List
Style: Inspirational Christian nonfiction.