My father-in-law passed away on Friday 28th of September, 2007 and it has been deep reflection for me ever since then on the purpose of life. This is the man that barely handed me her daughter some few years ago to support and be my best friend before he died. I strongly believe that peoples death become meaningless if their dreams are not realized; this kind of thinking immediately placed me on the spot for deeper reflection of my every day activities. Why am I on this earth? When would I be happy to prepare to give up the ghost since it is inevitable? What would I have accomplished to give me the necessary peace to look at death in the face?
The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose; a life where every decision you make is based on a purpose. Whats the essence of going to work? Whats the essence of investing? Whats the essence of starting a business? When all these questions are answered without a hint of self delusion, you would come to realize that you have been chasing after the wind (well, I am personalizing it). You start a journey without an end in view; this is the approach to most of our lives.
I asked a friend of mine that worked in the bank if she was sure she would make heaven. She said with all alacrity and confidence that she was too sure she would end up in heaven. Then my curiosity got the better of me and I asked her why she was sure? She told me about living right and her attendance to church then she ended with her relationship to God. Since I did not hear anything on purpose; I pressed on with my enquiries. “Entry into heaven is a judgement affair?” She said yes. “During entrance, you would definitely be questioned?” She said yes again with some impatience wondering where my question is leading to. ” What would the question be?” She actually paused for a while and reflected on my question; then she unwittingly said she did not really know but she was sure of going to heaven.
“How can one be sure of passing an exam without knowing the likely question?” She looked at me and said “If I was scared of not making heaven, I should not corrupt her mindset”. I did not reply her because I knew she needed to know some things which 95% of Christians dont know (My assertion is based on the action of Christians though not on their words). Its not the observation of rules but fulfilment of purpose that gives you an assurance of making heaven (if heaven is a goal post). Then the question of which purpose is right and which one is not would definitely come to play.
Before I venture on ways to understand your purpose, I would like to conclude on my interaction with my dear Banker. “It is logical to say there is a reason why you are on this earth” She affirmed my statement with a “yes”. “Do you believe that the reason you are on this earth is to increase the bottom line of your company and making the owners of the company very rich?” She quickly objected to that line of reasoning and said shakingly that she was good at her job then she said something that almost hit the home run “The thing I love to do cannot generate the amount of money to make me live as comfortable as I want to”
This has always been the issue and her final submission to the fact that she had an inner prompting but the challenge of finance has deterred her gives an indication to the fact that everyone subconsciously or consciously knows their purpose on this earth. If most people were giving some certain amount of finance, they would not wake up every morning and run to their present office (they would have to be sure this certain amount would come constantly). This always confirm my assertion that 90% of the salaried workforce are motivated by money though 90% of this 90% denies it.
I was at IEEE, Lasu Chapter recently and I was interviewed and asked why I work where I work and I gave them an answer that kept the hall quiet. “I work for XYZ company because of money, leverage and networking” This kind of answer should not be given by a youth motivator but I believe the truth sets free and expands their exiting thought life. I am sure the youths were expecting me to say things like I love for my job, the environment, etc.
Well, lets move to the cream of the subject, the best way to know your purpose is to identify your talent (what you can easily do that others find difficult to do). When you identify your talents, you can now understand what you are suppose to be doing on this earth. I am sure someone would be thinking how limiting my statement is but my statement sums the whole buhaha about purpose and what one is suppose to be doing on this earth. If you are good at atheletics specifically sprinting; you should be sprinting and expanding your talent in this area. Happiness is always the sympton of exploring your talent. Let me explain where the whole heaven thingy came from;
Jesus was using the parable to explain the Kingdom of God and he stressed on a man that gave three different individuals different talents before he departed on a journey. When he came back from the journey, he demanded the talents but only two of them were able to increase their talents while the other one was clueless on what the man wanted from them. None of the three were given instructions on what to do with their talents but the guy that did nothing was termed “Wicked”. This is why I cringe when people think by living right they would become heaven bound. Please, stay on this site becasue this is the fulcrum that leads to an ongoing series called the Visionay Man on DIpo Tepede.POeT. Watch Out!Â
