What Is Your True Purpose?
Successfully divided, whether you believe so or not. More and more people are only at the surfaced level---no God in their lives, no passions for anything in life and no pursuit for anything bigger than themselves. Many are okay with merely existing. And that's okay. We are here to exist, and that's our personal choice. Many of us are feeling hopeless about this world, but not realizing that we are not of this world. We are spirit beings---energy---that cannot be distinguished---even after we die. We have so much beyond this world. This world will fade away, but remember, heaven is forever.
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." --Matthew 24:35So many people set their identities on what they do for a living, what kind of house they have or cars they own and who they choose to spend their life with. Your life is much more than these things. What if you have a "Job" moment---where God removes every single thing you had set your identity on? Family, land, possessions and even your own health? That was all taken away from Job, and he still held onto his faith. But would you still hold onto to that strong faith, even if everything you loved was ripped away from you?
Purpose & Motives
When you help someone, do you tell the world about it? When you give someone a gift, do you let the world know what you did?
In Matthew 6:4 it says, "Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you."
I've done it before too. It's a feeling of wanting to be acknowledged for your kind-hearted gesture, but deep down, what's the real reason for it? I see so many videos on TikTok and Instagram, where someone goes up to a homeless person and offers him or her food and coffee. It's so touching. The videos themselves go viral because people love this kind of stuff. And it is good, but why did the person have to film it?
Two reasons:
1. The person wants to promote generosity, so they can encourage others to do the same.
2. The person wants everyone in the world to think that they're a good person.
What if no one was looking---would the same person still do this kind gesture?
Our world has gotten so cold. It's kind of sad when you see someone drowning in a river, and the people people standing around are all filming it on their smartphones. They want to capture that viral moment---that one chance to film something that rarely happens in front of them. We no longer want to help---we'd rather be the one to expose the rare opportunity for someone who is at the brink of death. "Opportunity" shouldn't be someone's incident.
"If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving---large or small---it will be used to measure what is given back to you." ----Luke 6:38
And it's not to be confused with having faith so we can get something out of a "religion"----it's to be generous, giving, understanding or just to be a good friend to someone. I always say, you can never go poor by giving.
In Ecclesiastes 9:11, it states, "I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time."
Have you ever wondered about how people get to the top? One singer vs another. One may be ten times talented than the other, yet the less talented will make it into Hollywood due to 'the right look' or perhaps their age and even weight was a factor. Everything ties in. So just because you didn't make it professionally with whatever it is you love to do---know that your talent means something in this world. You may have touched someone with your art, music or writing. I always think to myself, even if I just helped one person, it was all worth it.
I love the story about the boy and the starfish.
An old man was doing his daily walk along the beach one morning, when he spotted a young boy crouched by the water, scooping something up from the sand and throwing it into the sea.
The beach was normally empty at this time of day, and so the old man stopped to watch for a while.
He noticed that the boy kept on shuffling a little further down the beach, then repeating this same action again and again – stopping, scooping, throwing, moving.
“What are you doing there, boy?” the old man asked, walking closer.
“I’m saving these starfish that are stranded” replied the boy, “if they stay on the beach they will dry out and die, so I’m putting them back into the ocean so they can live.”
The old man was silent for a few seconds.
“Young man” he said, “on this stretch of beach alone, there must be more than one hundred stranded starfish. Around the next corner, there must be at least one thousand more. This goes on for miles and miles and miles – I’ve done this walk every day for 10 years, and it’s always the same. There must be millions of stranded starfish! I hate to say it, but you’ll never make a difference.”
The boy replied, “Well I just made a difference for that one”, and continued with his work.
And for me, that's the attitude I've always had. Sometimes it can get lost when I'm feeling down or having a bad day, but in reality, we all make a difference in this world. Never forget that.
For more of Deb's articles, please visit: www.debrapasquella.com or join her on Facebook and Twitter. Check out her cooking blog at DebsCucina.com for some of her famous recipes!