“All I know is that I want to achieve great things in this world.”
One of my beloved mentees uttered these words with gusto during one of our monthly lunch dates. I took a bite of my salad and chewed for a moment on what she had said. Then a question suddenly bubbled up to the surface of my soul and I blurted out, “Why?”
She looked up with a puzzled look. “What do you mean, Why?”
I mean, “What is the point?” I was genuinely curious. What really was the purpose in achieving these ‘great’ things? Was it to leave a lasting legacy? To be remembered as a great person? To affect the greatest number of lives? What?
She didn’t have an answer for me right then. But the question got her 20-something self thinking. Perhaps it will get you thinking too. Why do you do what you do? Why do you want to do what you want to do in life? Why does it matter?
Over the years, I’ve become more convinced that settling the answer to this ‘why’ question is crucial. In a world filled with divergent narratives telling us what we should do, be and achieve, we need to get clear on what we are about. Lest we want to spend our lives being tossed to and fro by the varying trends of the day (see Eph 4:14).
Jesus knew this and modeled it well. You may remember the time he was alone with his Father and the disciples busted onto the scene frantic and frazzled with all sorts of ‘agendas’ for what they thought he should be doing. But Jesus just looked at them and stated point blank,
“I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”
Luke 4:43
Jesus settled his big why and it had ripple effects into every area of his life and ministry. His daily discernment for what was important to achieve (and not achieve) was rooted in his why.
So how do we settle the why question for our own lives? Like Jesus, we can start by going to our Abba and asking,
“Father, why am I here? Show me the why behind the things I am doing and pursuing.”
In addition to prayer, we can also search the Scriptures to inform our why. For example, as Christians, we know:
- We are called to be… fruitful. Jesus says, “I…appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last…” (John 15:16). This reminds us that our definition of significance is not to be rooted in ideas of what it means to be successful by the world’s standards, but what it means to be fruitful. How might this impact your why?
- We are called to be… faithful. Jesus says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much” (Luke 16:10). Being a faithful steward over the little patch of “land” we’ve been given (be it our talents, finances, families or responsibilities) in the little corner of the world we’ve been placed delights the Lord. Bigger, according to God’s standards, is not always better. How does this impact your why?
It is not a bad thing to yearn for living a life of great significance and impact. But perhaps this longing (even when directed at His Kingdom) is at times misplaced. Really our greatest longing should be for Heaven, for He has “…set eternity in the human heart” (Ecc 3:11). Perhaps yearning and learning to live from that eternal place is achieving the greatest thing of all.