Clarity about my purpose and most of the ideas I have thought off and have made a reality were birth from a place of being still. We find ourselves in an interesting period in our Generation, where there is an ever increased focus on people talking about purpose. A lot of people want to find out what their purpose in this world is and my question to you dear friend is, have you practised the art of being still?
What does it mean to be still? It means finding time in our busy lives, to be by ourselves and just silent. People do this differently, I prefer waking up early to pray, read and mediate on the word of the Lord. I find when I do this, I reflect a lot about my life and I allow God to speak to my heart, offering me direction.
In one of my still moments, I was also reading the book of Genesis 11:12.There is an interesting story that made me realise something and further clarified this thing about purpose.We are introduced to a few characters namely, Abram, Sarai, Haran, Lot and Nahor. Now Lot’s father Haran had died, so Lot ended up living with his grandfather; Abram and Sarai Abram’s wife. In the context of our modern society, we probably will ask ourselves why didn’t Lot just find his own place, but remember people in the olden days had more of a communal conviction and it was normal for one to live with relatives even though they were old enough to live on their own.
Now, what was interesting to me is that Lot could have either chosen to stay with Nahor his other father’s brother or stay in the land of Haran, where his grandfather had died. But he decided to follow Abram, when Abram decided to go to another land with his wife. Could it be that Abram had exhibited such great fatherly love to him that he followed him wherever he went? Lot would not have followed him, if Abram was not treating him right. What I learned from this story is that Abram who God later changed his name to Abraham to mean “the father of many nations” was purposed to be a father. Abraham’s purpose was to be a father and bring forth a nation. Look at the first thing we hear God say to him in Genesis 12:2, “I will make you into a great nation”.So I have reason to believe that his purpose/destiny i.e. to be a father to nations, began or was established even before God called him and changed his name.
I started thinking about my own life; I know that one of the things which are a major part of my purpose is to be involved in humanitarian/ socio-economic development work. I know I am meant to be a communicator and share ground breaking research and solutions around some of the socio-economic issues we face in the world.
In my still time, I was just reflecting on the time when I was in primary school and I began to enter speech contests; joined the debating club and in high school I did a lot of biology talks. As I was reflecting I realised that I always chose topics that had some sort humanitarian/human rights/social development inclination. To recall just a few, I remember in primary school I did a speech on racism and xenophobia.
In high school, I did research on human cloning and presented that. My teachers were so impressed that I represented my schools both in primary and high schools in regional and district competitions. In varsity, I did a lot of study on labour and organisational studies and movements which have underpinnings of human rights. So what am I trying to say? That our destiny/purpose is like that exercise of connecting the dots one-by-one, until an image that makes sense is formed. Even before your purpose is crystal clear to you,the dots started connecting slowly. Are you wondering, what is my purpose? Well my friend, begin to trace back your life and look at things that have been a common feature and ask God and trust me the time you spend practising the art of being still, the clearer your purpose becomes.