How Do You Find Purpose in Life?

Everyone's looking for it, but how do you find your purpose in life? Pete Briscoe examines our desire to find meaning in life.

Questions for Discussion and Personal Reflection

  1. In addition to the types of purpose Pete mentions, what other types have you considered?
  2. Is it possible that God made you for a specific purpose? If so, what do you think yours might be?

The word purpose is a fairly broad word, isn't it? Uh, we have existential purpose, meaning why do we exist? We have pragmatic purpose, I mean, what, what am I going to contribute, um, to society? Uh, we have very practical purpose, what am I going to do for my wife or my kids today? Or my husband? Or, uh, my best friends? So purpose is such a broad word. When I was a teenager, my, my dad— um, and I'll probably mention my dad a few times. He had a great influence on me, but— uh, he said, "Pete, if God made you, which he did, and God has a plan for your life, which he does, and God isn't stupid, which of course he's not, then God made you perfect for the plan that he has for you." If God created me, which I believe he did, and he has a specific purpose for my life, like, a unique purpose for my life and for your life, and if he's not stupid, if he's wise, which of course he is, then he's going to wire me for the specific purpose that he has for me, and so one of the ways that you can figure out your life purpose is you can look at how God created you. You can look at your strengths, you can look at your weaknesses, you can look at what you love doing, what you feel comfortable doing, um, and you can assume that because God created you and he has a purpose, he's going to align his creative masterpiece with the purpose that he has for you. And as you look at how you're wired, you'll probably start to figure out what he might have in mind for you. But even higher level than that, a basic purpose for all of mankind, um, the Bible teaches us that the reason God created us is so that we can be in a relationship with him. He longed for relationship, for loving, intimate relationship with us. Our primary purpose as human beings is to be in intimate union, in relationship with the God of the universe. In essence, that is why you're here. It's why he created you. It's why he knit you together in your mother's womb. It's why he has every day ordained for you, so that he can enjoy you, and you can enjoy him, and people who aren't in union with him, people who don't know him, are missing out on the very essence, the very purpose of what life is all about.