When You Don’t Know Your Purpose (and the Future Seems a Scary Thing)

During our teenage years, several big questions loom on the horizon, hovering at the edge of our mind and causing stress and worry and fear when we least expect it:

What are we going to do with the rest of our lives?

Who will we become as adults?

What will our future look like?

What is our purpose on this earth?

We’ve already talked about how how stressful the teen years can be and how to live each day one step at a time. But even if you have your daily life under control, these big questions remain. And they can inspire more terror than any test, project, jam-packed day, or sleepless night we will ever experience.

There’s something we have to remember, when we face these questions and the doubt and fear that rise up within us at the thought of the future.

We already know our main purpose in this life. 

You don’t have to think about it at all. You don’t have to worry, plan, or spend hours trying to “find yourself”. As a Christian, your purpose is clear as day.

It is to know God and to make Him known. 

This will take many forms, look a little bit different for everyone. But ultimately, the goal of every Christian life is the same. It doesn’t matter how you go about it; the goal is God’s glory.

One of your purposes in the world is to know God, to seek a relationship with him above everything else.

To spend time with Him, to learn His Word and the power of prayer.

To seek Him in your daily tasks and duties and do everything for His glory.

To experience His life-changing love and mercy and grace, to accept the death Christ died for you and let that love overflow in your heart and overtake every sin and shame that hides there.

Your other purpose is to make God known, to proclaim Him to the world.

To spread the love of God to all the people you interact with, to devote time to those around you.

To share the gospel with the unbelievers you come across, to support the spreading of the gospel around the world.

To live in such a way that no one can see you and not believe that God is real, to live with a heart overflowing with love and gratitude and praise that makes everyone want to believe.

These are your callings, both now and in the future. They will not change when you graduate, when you get a job, when you get married. The college and major and job you choose are nowhere near as important as the way you use those things to God’s glory; no matter where you end up in life, you can fulfill these two purposes.

You don’t have to find your own identity and meaning in life. They have been given to you. Trust in that.

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love, grace