Day 40: Living with Purpose

So, after enduring the 40 days... I feel much more focused about everything. But Day 40 is in need of a few re-reads. And after that, the whole book needs another run-through. You'd think you'd have all the answers after reading such a book entitled The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Rick Warren). You'd think reading the 40th day would present you with all the answers, but it asked more questions than any other chapter in the book. Questions that I haven't seriously reflected on yet.

I've felt a lot of different things -- good and bad -- within the 40 days, within this month, within the past couple of weeks. Hope for the future to name one. Frustration and confusion to name a couple more. Had the negative feelings came up 40 days ago, I would've wasted a lot of time asking God a lot of questions that have already been answered (especially in the Bible). Why am I feeling this way? Why are you putting me in these circumstances? Why does no one understand me? Since God gives us the circumstances, every feeling and circumstance can be used for something good; it's up to us to react in the way God wants us. God sometimes takes away our feelings -- so that we don't depend on them. God sometimes hides himself -- to see if we will still trust him, regardless of not feeling him. I've learned these and more from reading.

To sum up my learning in a single answer: By nature, we're self-centered. As natural as it is to search inside ourselves for answers -- the answers to the questions of purpose come from without, not from within. If we don't know how something works, ask the Designer. If God designs us, why do we try to discover our purpose on our own? It's easier to discover that purpose with God in mind. He designed us and gives each of us our unique SHAPE (Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality and Experience), to be good at different tasks -- but also so that we would depend on eachother, and so we could work together for his purposes, not our own.

But that's the short answer. The real answer for my true purpose(s) will take a few days. Or years. In time, He'll let me know.

I've learned that I can tell God anything -- even my hurts and frustrations with him. No matter what questions I ask, he'll move people in (and out) of my life to get me to ask the right ones. Then he'll use others to get them answered.

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...And all of a sudden, I'm even more thankful for all the frustrations and confusion in my life; eventually, they can (and will) be used for good. I'm much more useful to people when I can speak from both good and bad experiences.

Because of them, I've been guided to people who need the wisdom from that experience.
Because of them, I've been made humble from thinking I could live life on my own.
Because of them, I've learned to be thankful about everything; despite the people who have walked out of my life --
    good people have walked in.
(i.e., I've made some of the coolest friends ever!)

Greatest of all...
Because of all of my experiences so far, I'm growing into the man God wants me to be.

And what God wants (for me, or for the world for that matter) is really all that matters.

(Okay, that's the short answer.)