What is Your Purpose? Christine Caine answered this question when she wrote, “The purpose of our time on earth is to learn to walk with Him, abide with Him, and live through Him – and then share that light with others.” How comforting and refreshing. It takes all the pressure off us. We can let go of everything we were striving to be. We can stop working so hard for all those things we were trying to accomplish. The competition suddenly got a whole lot lighter.
Our five and ten-year plans just went out the window. But that’s a good thing because odds are we weren’t going to hit them anyway. As humans, we have a terrible tendency of overestimating what we can do in the long term and underestimating what we can accomplish in the next couple of hours.
It’s the time period of the next couple hours on which I wish to focus today. With our grandiose plans, we often overlook what we could be doing right now, in this moment, and the one after it. In that short amount of time, we can be fulfilling our purpose. We can be learning to walk with Jesus, sticking close by His side, and allowing Him to live through us. None of this takes very long. It can all be accomplished in a moment of time because it can all be accomplished at the speed of choice.
We choose how we will live this moment, and what we choose will begin to build the framework of our lives. If we choose to follow Christ, little by little we will begin to look like Him. Every moment we choose Jesus is a victory for His Kingdom. At the same time, every moment we reject Christ is a victory for Satan. Sometimes life really is this black and white. So, the choice becomes simple. At this moment, right now, would you rather be living on behalf of Jesus or Satan? There is no middle ground in this choice. Jesus said we are either with Him or against Him (Matthew 12:30). Period.
What if we stopped dreaming of the future and began living for Jesus in the moment at hand? What if we did it this moment, the next one, and the one after it? Before long, our long-term plans wouldn’t matter anymore, because living in this way we would soon find Jesus as the only thing that matters to us. And this is exactly where we want to be.
After reading this, I ask you again, “What is your purpose?” Is it a long-held dream which only marginally (or not at all) relates to the Kingdom? Are you spending your days dreaming of what will be or focused on what is? The answer to the “What is your purpose?” question should be to love and obey Christ. It’s what disciples do. In this moment, you have the opportunity to live this out. Start building a string of moments where you are seeking Jesus. This is your purpose. Now go live it.