Last week we began a discussion on what’s the difference between a good cause and a God-cause.  We often wonder through out our lifetimes, “why was I born?”, “why am I here?”, and  “what is my purpose?”.  Rick Warren jump-started a huge discussion in our culture when he wrote “The Purpose Driven Life”.  He launched his career, expanded his church, and opened lines of communication about God all across the American landscape.  The book sought to answer these questions we face.  In it he states, “But there is a God who made you for a reason, and your life has profound meaning! We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives.”

Today is my daughter’s 18^th birthday.  My children are nearly grown now, and I’m beginning to see the fruits of my investment and of pouring my life into theirs, which is a wonderful thing for a parent.  But I vividly remember those years when they were young and every day felt like a scene from the movie Groundhog Day.  I would wake upwith fresh hope, only to repeat the same tasks and chores of the day before, feeling caught in the cycle of daily maintenance routines and constant care of little ones.  I remember occasionally looking in the mirror, seeing fatigue on my face, exhaustion in my eyes, and a serious case of bed head, saying to myself, “who are you?” and “how did you get here?”  Then as the kids began physically needing me less and less, I really began asking the questions, “what else am I here for?”  and “where is my life going?”

To begin answering any of those questions, I had to realize who I was.  I didn’t even begin to understand until the year 2004.  I began reading Purpose Driven Life, I went to the Hillsong Conference in Australia, and I came home and turned 40 years old.  While in Australia I saw modeled before me, women who knew and understood that they had a responsibility to the female half of God’s church.  I learned for the first time, that I too, was intended for a purpose. I am a royal princess.  A beloved daughter.  A girl made in the image of a Heavenly Father who loved me. I had a destiny built into my soul.

I read in Ecclesiastes 3:11 ¹¹He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.  He said I was “beautiful”!

My whole perspective began to change.  I began to look for the things God would want me to do.  I started realizing what Jesus meant when He said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it to the full.” (John 10:10)  A full life.  Not a routine,  drudgery, hold-your-breath-and-get-through-it kind of exisistence?  I wanted it.  I looked for it.  I began reading God’s Word more, letting Him breathe His life into me.  I began reading other books, full of passion and zeal.  I surrounded myself with people going in the same direction I was going.

I actually didn’t know where I was going, but that wasn’t as important as being committed to the journey at that point.  I discovered, when you know who you are, you’re halfway there!