Purpose-driven thoughts

I write today, with a purpose to share several messages. Lately, I've been pressed, by multitude of factors, to complete the tasks I've been entrusted. Not surprisingly, I treated these issues with much contemplation and lack of confidence. Fortunately, I was able to gear up and alter the course of my life. In light of this, I would like to share some thoughts.

I) Purpose driven life = focus on God
I cannot think of a better sentence that represents the crux of the book than "Focus your body and soul on the greatness of God." Throughout the Purpose Drive journey, I believe many of us gained deeper insights to life. No doubt, some of the values the book advocated challenged our definition of living but instead of regarding the book as a severe source of controversy, I urge all of you to take a step back and evaluate our own lives. Question your idea of perfection and see the works of God throughout your life processes. Like Roy mentioned during a dinner (and I am paraphrasing): if he had (more) involved God in his job searching process, maybe things will be better. These words resonate with my train of thoughts at that very moment. When looking for a job, I made three crucial mistakes: 1) I relied on my own limited ability. 2) I did not grab opportunities created by God. 3) I did not ask myself, “What can I do for you”. Purpose driven life and the bible corrected these errors I made in life. Consequently, when I followed the wills of God, that is to focus on Him and to always be a servant, I was shortly offered employment. Amen!

II) Purpose driven life is practical
When I first read the book, I was totally repulsed by the extremities of Rick Warren’s preaching’s. As a baby Christian at that time, I was not ready to admit that we have only one purpose in life: “to worship and follow God.” Fortunately, after a year of experience and a second reading of the book, I came to my senses and realized the power of God. Some of you might raise queries regarding self-achievements and personal pride. Some might even go to the level of advocating the contradiction between following God and success (as I did before I was saved). Such arrogance I had two years ago that even my sisters had some reservations reaching out to me. But, following God (as Rick Warren preached) is totally practical! In our education life, we rank our priorities. For instance, some might place leadership as the top most priority while doing your laundries and socializing being less prioritized tasks. In other words, being a real leader is the ultimate purpose and having a clean suit and many friends are sub-purposes. Indeed, it is easy to point out that the two categories are deeply intertwined with each other since a leader cannot present him as a respectable figure without clean suits and trustworthy friends. Similarly, bringing this idea to a higher level, we understand that following God is our ultimate purpose but this is not our only task. As sons of God, we got to have clean shirts and many friends to spread the words of God. We have to pride our achievements and show the world the blessings God bestowed to us. And we have to perform many sub-purposes but we have to perform all these sub-purposes, according to the wills of God.

III) Recognize your inability.
Within the school of western philosophy, thinkers purported that we have to be confused to gain new knowledge. I understand that my friends are less receptive towards paradoxical jargon but yesterday night, we brought up an interesting topic on knowledge and wisdom. God gave us knowledge and analytical skills but as human beings, we are too far away from the wisdom of God. In light of this, I propose 3 ways of gaining knowledge through confusion. No doubt, the best way is to consistently pray for His guidance, for our God is the only figure that is perfect (remember perfection is absolute?). Second, we could observe our friends’ way of life, absorbing the systems that would work for us. This is not to say that we have to conform to other people’s way but this type of mix-and-match, trial-and-error method might be a good way to improve ourselves. Remember, we have to be humble and receptive towards correcting ourselves. Third, we have to look for models of the same kind (philosophical huh?). This is the point that I have realized recently. Your have heard the sentence “learn from other people’s mistakes” and “learn from your own mistake”. The former is easy to implement, since we, as human beings are always ready to mock as other people’s misfortune. The latter is usually more difficult to practice. As an individual who takes pride in my personal accolades, I find it difficult when someone (whose name shall be concealed forever) challenged my life systems. Soon, arrogance sets in and every negative comment is eradicated from my mind. As a result, I was not able to correct my way in life drastically. Fortunately in my case, God brought (in front of my face) a failed scenario of my system (whose name shall never be mentioned on Earth). The similarities between the two of us is uncanny and when (he/she) exemplifies thineself right in front of my face, it resembles looking through a mirror, an image of myself full of negative elements. It is at this point of time that I realized the folly of my ways.

I am full of incapability but I am not entirely useless. These few weeks have been revolutionary for me. It is the first time in my life that I evaluated myself so extensively. Thanks to a number of people, Roy, Veli and my FA group, I was able to realize the need to alter my principles. Like all of you, I am constantly struggling with midterms and schoolwork. But I urge all of you to take a small step backwards, review the things you have done and change your ways of doing things. Like redoing your assignments, I am confident that most of you will find a “changed you” more satisfying to present. God bless you (and America)!