So what exactly is your purpose?

First some words of wisdom!

A thirsty soul will drink whatever presented to it that sounds good. Be careful what’s in the water that you are passing out.

This clip is from the movie Malcolm X with Denzel Washington

I really hate MEMES. Shallow and “insightful” posts that people seem to feel empowered by.

And I think when you get to the bottom of it, a lot of them are self-serving and angry, even the ones that sound nice can be poison to our souls.

What strikes me is the ignorance and arrogance of this meme.

Why ignorant? Please answer this question: Do you even know and can clearly articulate what your purpose is? (I’ll wait, but don’t say “to serve God” if you got this meme as a motto, I’ll explain that one shortly)

Why arrogant? For some of you, it sounds like what you are REALLY saying is this: I want to remove everyone and everything from my life that doesn’t serve ME!

Let me first way why IMO you need to be careful about saying you serve GOD. For some, what you say is your purpose is not very Christian of you! Here are some bible verses you may want to reflect on.

• Philippians 2:4: Not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
• Romans 12:1: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
• Matthew 23:11: The greatest among you will be your servant.
• Mark 10:45: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
• 1 Peter 4:10: Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

If you take the Christian view, then that meme should be deleted from your language (IMO), because clearly we are called to serve others. We are not given gifts to use them to leverage the service of others, but rather to use our gifts to serve mankind.

No? Just read Luke 12:48 and then we can talk 🙂

In my view: A life built solely to serve yourself is totally empty and devoid of purpose.

If you want to serve God, then serve his people, and with that in mind, that leads to another question: Who then would you remove?

I suggest the people who need to be removed from our lives would do harm to other people in service of themselves. We call those people narcissists. You’ll know them, they post stuff like this on social media and have at least 100k followers, who then repost their “wisdom”.

Here is what there is to get: Your purpose is created by you, not assigned. Your calling may be what you see needs to be done to make this world a better place. Or at least start there!

My Purpose?

• To creating a world where young black men and boys are empowered to create and define for themselves what being a man is.
• Where they are clear that their own life has meaning and a purpose and, accordingly understand that they have a role that is necessary and vital in their community, in their family, in their schools.
• To have them, and by extenstion the rest of humanity get what they want in their life
• To have them see that they are not what the world tells then that they are!

Anyone who stands there with me is welcome in my space. If not, then you’re still cool people and I will just enjoy your company, what you say in service of your purpose may help me in service of mine.

Which is another point: Your purpose can be fulfilled even by people who don’t even seem to serve it, just listen for why they were put into your space. Sometimes the people who seem most at odds with you or the ones who don’t “get it” may be the ones who clarify things for you the most.

So the question arises again: What is your purpose? Answer that question before you start cutting people out of your life.

The people who you cut out maybe the people you need to fulfill on what you are committed to.

The people you want to cut out might just be the people that need you the most. If so, then how is that of service?

Oh and being of service does not mean you dedicate your life to them or even be with them, it is that you are committed that they get what they need so they can be fully functional and therefore fulfill their purpose.

What could be greater than that?