Isaiah 64:8 (NTL)
“Finding our purpose”, a phrase used so often by so many of us who have the desire to know exactly what it is we’re on this earth for. I don’t know about you, but it seems that with each New Year, the purpose needs to be even more clearly defined to me – yes, I get that we are a couple of months in the year now, but some of us are still searching. So bear with us.
It was not too long ago during my morning quiet time that I had a heart to heart with God about my purpose. Why am I here? Surely there’s got to be more to my life than just getting through the day, only for the process to be repeated again the very next one, and the next one, and the next one…you get the picture. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for each day that I’m blessed with; however, I’m thirty five, and although I think I’m doing pretty ok for myself; I sometimes get moments when I feel like I’m just wandering through this thing called life. Yes I have goals, and I work hard towards reaching them, nevertheless I truly believe that there’s more that I’m called to do in this life. With that being said, so on this particular morning, my desperation to hear from God about my purpose was so intense. I remember even asking Him for at the very least, a hint, or just a step in the direction I should take. After many futile attempts in trying to find and define my purpose on my own, I figured going to God with it was probably my best bet at getting some sort of light at the end of the tunnel, which wasn’t a train…
The passage I was reading didn’t necessarily have anything to do with me trying to find my purpose (I say this with a whole lot of caution, as in itself, the entire Bible is filled with God’s gentle nudges of what the grandest purpose for our lives is), yet the Holy Spirit, in His loving nature, literally dropped an impression in my heart – Psalm 139:16 and a vase. Weird, I know! This was my exact thought. I stopped reading for a bit, trying to make sense of the vase. The verse, yeah it kind of made sense – all the days ordained for me were written by God even before one of the came to be. Great stuff! This is quite reassuring really, knowing that not a single thing about my life happens by chance. Nothing is coincidental, that there is a purpose and a plan for my life. Awesome! However, I was still confused about the vase, and could not for the life of me connect the dots; “What does a vase have to do with my purpose”? As I was attempting to piece it all together, a few verses about ‘The Potter and the Clay’ came flooding to my head, and as I went through them, Jeremiah 18:1-9 ministered to me greatly. I read and re-read this passage, and it finally struck me; it’s only the potter who knows the reason for which a vessel is created.
When a potter makes a vase, its primary purpose would be for it to display flowers. And while a vase can be used for many things, such as holding water (okay, maybe this is a bit of a stretch, but y’all know what other use you have for vases either than its main one) or even be put on display as an ornament, it doesn’t take away from its primary purpose – displaying beautiful flower arrangements. This is the same with us, we can do so many things with our lives that have both value and meaning, but if we are not doing that which God, our Potter, has created us to do, then we aren’t living out the purpose we were created for. We often try to define purpose for ourselves; but the truth is, only God can do that. And no matter how many times we may mess up while trying to figure it out, God can take those messy pieces and put them back together and still give us something to work with. We don’t find our purpose, we were created with and for it, and it is only wise that when we get to the point of desiring to know what it is, we go back to God for the answer, and sure enough, He will direct us. It is not so much that we need to find our purpose, but allow God to reveal His one for our lives to us and then walk it out.
Do I have the exact blueprint of the purpose God has created me for? No. Not quite the answer that many may have been hoping to get; but hearing and seeing Him direct my path on a day to day basis, I’ve become less anxious about what the big picture is; because I trust that as I remain obedient to His guidance, He will continue to reveal what I need to know, as and when I need to know it.
So although vases can be used for various things, I desire to be one that’s used to display beautiful flowers, exactly as the Potter had intended. As such, I could continue going rogue in trying to find my purpose, or I could just surrender to the one God created me for. I choose the latter!
Blessings,
Ntao