Activating Your Purpose
A blog post by Jourdan
Before I sat down to do my Bible study last night, I made myself a cup of tea. I was at the grocery store earlier that day when I spotted a tea I had not tried before and just could not resist (for my fellow tea lovers, it was Numi Chocolate Rooibos). Little did I know, it was not the tea that I needed, but a message that lay inside.
As I slowly swirled my tea bag, I noticed a paper tag at the end of the string I was holding that had a short yet profound phrase: “Activating Purpose.” I immediately had the realization that by sitting down to read my Bible, I was doing just that—activating my purpose. I was taking the time to be with God and align my thinking with His word. The more I thought about it, the more I loved the idea of “activating your purpose.” It suggests that your purpose is already inside of you, it just needs to be activated.
I think that many of us are actively searching for our purpose. After all, that is one of the reasons Nohemi and I started Pen to Papher. But the idea of finding a purpose can be daunting. We are quickly overwhelmed with questions like “Where do I start? Where do I look for it? What if I look in the wrong place? How will I know when I have found it?”
Here is where I am going to suggest something radical. What if we are not tasked with finding our purpose, but we are tasked with activating it? What if, as Christians, our purpose has already been given? If that is true, then we should feel like a weight has been lifted!
Two questions remain: what is that God-given purpose and how can we activate it?
If God designed us in His image, then His purpose is our purpose. In other words, our purpose should always be aligned with God’s mission. To be aligned with God’s mission, we must first understand what His mission is. The Bible makes it clear that God created us to be in community and He calls us to make disciples. The details, including who comprises our community, where our community is, and how we share our testimony is unique to each of us. But all Christians have the same overarching purpose and this purpose should radiate into all areas of our life.
The way to activate our purpose is by imitating Christ in all that we do (Ephesians 5:1-2 NLT), loving one another (John 13:35 NIV), studying the Bible regularly (Joshua 1:8 NLT), and praying about everything (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT). If we are consistently doing these things, then we are actively living out our purpose.
Every interaction is an opportunity to live out your purpose.
I would guess that my interpretation of “activating purpose” was probably not what the tea company intended, but God works in mysterious ways and I believe He speaks to us through others—sometimes even through a cup of tea.
