Purpose – Why are you here?
You’re created for a reason, to achieve your life purpose. One or several events in your life could impact others. For example, a kind word at the right time, or founding an African orphanage.
If you are looking for a new direction in your life it’s wise to consider your purpose. Why are you here? Is there a something only you can carry out?
It’s not easy to find out the purpose of their life. Perhaps you naturally focus and have a clear vision, or as often is the case you struggle to move in the right direction. One couple that I have a high regard for are Reginald and Catherine Hamlin. They gave up the luxury of comfortable living in their home country of Australia to go to Ethiopia to help young mothers. These women, some only thirteen or fourteen years old suffer with a debilitating injury after giving birth at a young age, called a fistula.
After the birth of their first child, who often die, they suffer an internal injury that stops them being able to control their bladders. As a result the leaking urine makes them smell unpleasant, causing their tribe to ostracize them. Their husbands send them back to their parents, who build a hut away from the family and village and forcing them to live alone.
Reginald and Catherine set up a hospital that’s dedicated to repairing the injuries of these young women, enabling them to return to their husbands and villages and live a normal life.
For most of us our purpose isn’t as self-sacrificing and noble as the Hamlin’s, but nonetheless important. Perhaps you are the most important person in a child’s life which effects their future. You could be an important link in a chain of events that produces something great in the future. Don’t worry if your purpose is not immediately obvious, or if that purpose seems trivial. Your purpose is irreplaceable because you are unique, and only you can achieve your purpose. Consider the following:
PURPOSE & IMPACT
It’s possible you’ve already fulfilled your purpose on Earth and may never realize which event impacted the world. This story shows such an event. A poor Scottish farmer fulfilled his life purpose, and impacted millions of lives. He never lived to realize he had achieved his main life purpose.
This humble farmer in Scotland was busy tending his sheep on his small croft when he heard a cry for help. He realized it was coming from a nearby notoriously dangerous bog. Running towards the sound he came on a young lad who was struggling up to his waist in oozing black mud. The farmer pulled him out, saving him from an almost certain horrible suffocating death.
A man surprised Farmer Fleming the next day while the old man dug his garden, when a fine carriage pulled up outside his croft. He leaned on his spade and watched as a Nobleman stepped down from the carriage. The man walked and introduced himself as the rescued boy’s father.
“You saved my son’s life and I want to repay you in any way I can”.
“I couldn’t possibly accept any payment for what I did”, the farmer replied.
As they were speaking the farmer’s son emerged from inside the croft. “Is that your son?”, asked the Nobleman. “Yes” replied the farmer throwing his arm around the boy’s shoulder proudly.
“If you won’t take any payment for saving my son’s life then let me take your son and give him a good education”.
The farmer couldn’t let his son miss such a great opportunity and agreed to let the man take the boy.
Farmer Fleming’s son was a bright boy and a quick learner. Many years later he graduated from a medical school in London. Eventually he discovered penicillin and became known the world over as Sir Alexander Fleming.
Decades later the boy saved by Farmer Fleming that fateful day contracted pneumonia. He was again saved from death by the drug that has protected countless millions since, penicillin.
The boy was Sir Winston Churchill, who as Prime Minister of England led the country to victory in World War II.
This one quick action by the farmer resulted in saving and continuing to save, millions of lives. Although the farmer didn’t live to see the results of his actions that day and never knew what his purpose was in his life, he fulfilled it nonetheless.
To find your own purpose in life search your heart and look out for opportunities you resonate with. You are important to someone, somewhere and only you can discover the longing of your soul.
