Purpose

By Pastor Paul Gauche

Today’s Word: PURPOSE as in … “Who are you?” “What are you doing here?” “Where are you going? “How will you get there?” are the four core questions of the Thriving Rhythms Initiative, also known as Thriv’ëra.

The Polish-born American humorist Leo Calvin Rosten said this: “The purpose of life is not to be happy—but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.”

The Great Commission story from Matthew 28 is all about purpose. It’s a story about what matters most: being productive, useful, and making a difference. It’s a story about the impossible becoming possible through Christ. The resurrection is the proclamation that anything can happen. The mission that Jesus gives his followers in every age and time is to go everywhere and tell everyone about what God is up to today. The problem is, though, we usually make “going everywhere and telling everyone about what God is up to in the world” far too complicated, so much so that we’re likely to say that it’s someone else’s job.

But it’s not. And it really isn’t that difficult. We’ve all got stories about hope emerging from hopelessness and healing growing out of brokenness. We’ve all got stories about the movement from death back to life. Every time we tell those stories, we affirm our purpose.

The Great Commission is just that: a co-mission. We do it together. When each of us does our small part, we make a big difference! Being patient, showing kindness, volunteering, expressing love, encouraging others, and even picking up trash in a vacant lot is missional. When we do these seemingly little things, we’re telling the big story of the love of God through Christ to the world… one moment at a time. And by doing these things, we’re living into our purpose.

Four Thriving Questions:

++ How would you describe your purpose in life?

++ How does living with purpose help you thrive?

++ What do you do often that makes a big difference?

++ Have you got a resurrection-coming-back-to-life story?

#100days50words

#Thriv’ëra

Paul Gauche is the Pastor of Life Transitions at Prince of Peace. His posts are part of his #100days50words project, where he blogs about a different word each week. You can follow his project on Instagram (@pgauche) or his blog, Thriving Rhythms.