Recognizing Purpose

Before I met Christ, I felt like something was missing in my life.

I can remember spending time with other people my age, who professed to be Christians. I can recall feeling like there was something different about the way they lived their lives and the manner in which they treated others. Their families were kind and loving toward each other. They went to church willingly, they spent time with other Christians and they were always looking to invite others to share in their various events and activities. I remember feeling this desire to have whatever it was that made them act and respond in that same fashion.

A friend invited me to a youth group event at the local church. After the event, I met with the youth pastor and expressed my interest in knowing more about this "personal relationship" with God. It was then that he shared with me and I accepted the gift of eternal life.

Now I know that the difference that I saw in these Christian friends and families was a kindness and love that they had learned from our savior Jesus Christ. It was by God's grace that their hearts were softened and they came to know what it meant to genuinely love others. I now had that sense of fulfillment and purpose in my life. I knew that God was calling me to be more than I had been to that point in my life. I knew that I had a purpose and that I would be required to engage in healthy relationships with others, in addition to my Lord Jesus Christ.

Some time ago, I was sitting in a parking lot waiting for my wife to come out of a store. A homeless man approached my vehicle and asked for some money to get some food. In the past, I would have ignored this person or maybe I would have given him some change, just so he would go away. I would have seen him as burden to me. On that day, with a renewed purpose for living a life that honors Christ, I asked that man how he was doing, I asked him his name, I asked him what I could get him, I went and bought him a meal, I sat with him and I prayed with him. I had finally demonstrated the same love and compassion that Jesus had for others. In that moment, I recognized my purpose and was left with a great sense of joy and fulfillment.

Even greater than the feeling I get when I am living within God's will for life, is knowing that know matter what, I know that I will someday spend eternity in Heaven with God.