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The first time I saw the above image was at Castaway Camp a few years ago with a bunch of middle schoolers we took to the Eastern North Dakota Synod gathering. We were listening to an incredible speaker, Dr. Ulysses Burley, III. He is a phenomenal man, a leader in many aspects of health and social justice. He spoke to us for four sessions all focusing on a word that started with the letter P. The first session was the word PURPOSE.
Three years later I still come back to this image regularly. It has helped me to focus in a bit on what my purpose is in this world. I look at it, and again focus in on what my purpose is. I think my purpose is to spread the gospel around to all of God’s children, and to help others grow in their faith. It was interesting for me, to find out my purpose in life. The first time I had an inkling of what it might be, it was the last day at the ELCA youth gathering in San Antonio, Texas in the summer of 2006. I had experienced an incredible week and I began to think I would love to do this someday, to help others experience what I just had. As soon as I completed that thought I was just washed with this sense of “YES!” from God.
There are times when we may not be living our perfect purpose, but I think the important thing for us to do, is to always be working towards that purpose. I have been writing and rewriting my entrance essay for seminary, since April. I know that my purpose is to become a pastor, and so I am working towards that goal currently. To that, I think we can see our purposes change and evolve as we grow, change and evolve. My original purpose was to become a youth director, and share God’s love and stories with young people (I think that my evolved purpose to become a pastor will still heavily involve that).
When I look at this graphic, I also think a lot about Jesus’ purpose. What an incredible purpose. Just imagine realizing and understanding that your purpose is to die for the sins of the entire world. If I had that realization, I don’t think I could go on, honestly. That would be too much for me to bear, and in those thoughts I find myself loving God and Jesus all the more for it. I think about the extreme emotional pain Jesus must have gone through when he said, “father forgive them for they know not what they do.” People that Jesus loved were throwing dice to see who would get his clothes. I think about that when I think of purpose. Jesus' purpose was to die for us, to be killed by people he loved, for they were his children too. And he walked towards it his entire life. An incredible purpose.
All things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
(Romans 8:28 ESV)
In peace,
Erik Carlson
Student Life Coach
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