How Do We Find Purpose In Life? (Repurpose Your Life, Part 1)
Series: Repurpose Your Life (Part 1)
Author: Dr. Steven L. Childers
Title: How Do We Find Purpose in Life?
Article 1: Introduction and Question 1: How Do We Find Purpose in Life?
Introduction
Ultimate questions are asked by every generation. Questions like,
Where do we all come from?
Why is everything so messed up?
What is the solution to the problem of evil and suffering?
Where is everything headed?
How do we fit in?
These are among the most ancient and significant questions in all of life. We look for answers and we’re restless until we find them. That’s because nothing really makes ultimate sense in life until we can answer these kinds of questions.
In many ways, the history of civilization is the history of human beings trying to answer these ultimate questions of purpose and meaning.
Ultimate questions deserve ultimate answers. This lesson is designed to help you begin answering these questions, and begin thinking through what these answers can mean for your life.
After completing this series, you'll be equipped to understand the biblical answers to these five ultimate questions in life:
How do we find purpose in life?
What in the world is God doing?
What is God’s purpose for the world?
How is God carrying out his purpose?
What is our hope for a broken world?
Let’s begin exploring the answer to the question, “How do we find purpose in life?”
Question 1: How do we find purpose in life?
Historically Christians have understood God’s purpose for the world through the lens of the Bible. The scriptures teach that history is not a meaningless cycle of events. It’s a grand narrative with a beginning and with an end.
The problem is, we can know all the stories in the Bible, we can even master Christian doctrine, and still not know this greater story of God’s overarching purpose for humanity and the world.
Now, the reason it’s important for us to know God’s unfolding story in history is because our understanding of universal history, of the history of humanity, it’s what gives our lives meaning.
And when we lose the Bible’s true story about history, we lose the power to withstand other false stories that can rob life of joy and meaning. There are different stories being told about the big picture today.
One teaches that the world and humanity came into being through a mysterious and random convergence of mass and energy over billions of years for no apparent purpose.
The other story is about God’s good creation, the fall of humanity and the world, God’s redemption and restoration of what was lost in the fall, and the coming consummation of his creation purposes when he will make all things new forever.
Now the greatest battle today is the battle for the minds and hearts of people. It can only be won by recovering this overarching, life-altering, narrative. This story of the Bible–called the good news of the kingdom.
Although the Bible consists of a wide variety of literature, at its core, it’s one story that God means to so captivate us, that we’re drawn into its plot to find our place.
The only way we can make any ultimate sense out of our life story is to understand how it fits into God’s story.
That’s what these 5 brief video steps are all about. In these remaining videos, we’ll continue our look at the biblical responses to these ancient questions with the goal of deepening our understanding of God’s story in history so we might be drawn more into its plot to find our place in the world today.
In the next article we’ll begin taking a deeper look by asking the question, “What in the world is God doing?”