A Life of Purpose

There surely can’t be many things more depressing than feeling that your life is worthless.  I think there are many people who have never found their way.  They are like a ship tossed about on the ocean waves just getting by from day to day without any real drive or direction.  It has led to so much depression and heartache.  What is the problem and what can do about it?
 
There are many moments in life when we are more susceptible to this mindset.  Many women suffer from post-partem depression and lose their sense of a full life for a period.  Some people might experience this in their vocation when they have been stuck at the same level of the company without any upward movement.  And, nursing homes are filled with people who have lost their way.  But, I am concerned about those of us who have none of these life-moments.
 
I found a website called Power of Positivity.  They gave 5 reasons why people might lose their sense of purpose.  These things can cause a normal, healthy, productive person to stop for a while and question whether they have a purpose in their lives. Counseling, rest, and even medication might be needed to get these thoughts under control.         1.   Anxiety, 2.  Stopped dreaming,  3.  Failure, 4.  Lack of focus, 5.  Lost their calling.
 
How might we apply these same things to one’s Christian life?  Maybe you have lost your sense of purpose because you are anxious about your spiritual future.  Paul wrote these words that can be the beginning of a better way of thinking.  “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1).  God never intended for us to walk around thinking that we are lost if we are in Jesus and walking in the Spirit.
 
What does it mean when Christians stop dreaming?  Some quit trying to find ways to serve in the local church.  Others spend little to no time thinking about their heavenly home.  Maybe some stop dreaming about certain individuals, either family or friends, who are not yet Christians and how they might reach them.  Paul wrote this.  “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above…” (Philippians 3:1).  We will be connected to those things we dream about.
 
Failure is the common lot of all of us.  However, we must not allow our failures to cause us to lose heart and become a failure.  Paul had been a failure spiritually in his earlier life, but he did not allow it to destroy him.  He wrote, “…this one thing I do, for getting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” (Philippians 3:13).
 
We lose our focus when the things of the world around us wrestle our attention from the things that are above.  Focus is all about that which dominates our minds.  We must keep thoughts of spiritual things at the forefront of our minds continually.  “Set your mind on things above and not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:2). 
 
Christians who lose their calling have allowed themselves to be called to another pathway.  They have ceased to find peace in the pathway of their original calling and are caught up in a worthless lifestyle.  “…walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” (Ephesians 4:1).  We must have an honest comparative study of the two pathways—the narrow and more difficult one and the wide that is far easier.  A life of purpose will acknowledge the danger of these things and will monitor themselves constantly so they will not cause them to lose their purpose.

— Mike Johnson