Find Your Purpose

Some people can relate pretty much everything back to their favorite tv show or book series. Me? I can relate most things to the pro-life movement. Why? It’s my passion. It’s what I read about, it’s what I work for, and it’s what I think about quite a bit of the time. Of course I don’t spend my life consumed by it, but it is my cause. How did I get here? I noticed recently that I don’t write many things about my personal life on here. So today (and this week) I decided to start sharing more of that with you.

I found my cause a couple years ago, but it happened slowly.

Growing up, pro-life issues were not things I knew much of anything about or really talked about. At all. I do remember going to some sort of pro-life rally or protest in Sacramento when I was around 9, but I don’t remember what it was for. I do clearly remember seeing graphic abortion signs, and to this day know which one in particular people were carrying.

Fast forward to January 2011 when I went to my first Walk for Life. It was an experience unlike anything I had ever been to. It was inspiring and moving. I had never had the experience of being part of a movement like that – something bigger than myself. It’s hard to describe. To know that you are walking for a cause, for the truth, with thousand of other people? That’s pretty powerful. To this day, going to marches and pro-life rallies never ceases to inspire me and sometimes move me to tears. That day I think something was planted in the back of my mind.

January 2011 is also when I got my Facebook account and shortly after found Live Action and Life News which I started reading. My eyes were opened to a whole new world I had known absolutely nothing about.

I was working for Sears at the time, and quit that job in June 2011 after a terrible experience (a whole other story). I didn’t know what I was going to do, and needed a job. I applied to the usual – fast food and restaurants – but didn’t get anything. I got to the fall and just decided to wait and see what would happen. I would like to say that I had a moment when I just threw it in God’s hands, but I don’t really remember. Something better was in the works…

In the fall of 2011 someone I know introduced me to someone who introduced me to people at Live Action. The rest, you could say, is history.

I started working for Live Action in October, and it all snowballed. I went to the International Pro-Life Youth Conference in November 2011, wrote my first blog post after that, and later started writing for Live Action. Now I’ve worked for a couple different pregnancy centers, and multiple pro-life organizations.

This all happened in the span of a couple years, and let me tell you: I could never have imagined being this uber pro-lifer. Just a few years ago, I knew nothing about abortion and related topics. But everything fell into perfect place. And it’s not because I planned for this to happen.

In college I’ve met many different kinds of people, but one thing I’ve noticed is that not too many of them are extremely passionate about anything in particular. They come to college to get a degree, and la la la. They don’t really know what they want to do. I’ve noticed this about all sorts of people in other aspects of my life as well.

I don’t get this.

As someone who feels rather strongly about pro-life issues, I am convinced that this is what I was meant to do. We’re all here for a purpose, right? This is mine. Or at least part of it. I cannot imagine now not being like this, but am fully aware that many people are not. Why? I don’t think they’ve found their purpose yet.

So this is my message: If you’re one of those people, start exploring things NOW.

High school is the perfect time to start finding internships and making connections. If you’re older than that, you’re going to need to hit the ground running. Like now. Learn how to have integrity, and always give your best effort. Get summer jobs. Ask your teachers questions.

Don’t know what you love yet? Start with the process of elimination. Make a list of tons of jobs and cross out the ones you know you don’t want to pursue. Pray about it. Talk with a friend about your strengths and weaknesses, and how those will play into your future (your parents would be good at that too). Talk to people you know whose work looks interesting. Go to work with them. Read articles.

We were all put on Earth for a reason, and if you haven’t found that reason yet, you’re wasting time. Quite frankly, you’re wasting your life. God handed you a specific set of talents and gifts, and it’s your responsibility to figure out how to best use them. If you don’t, you’re basically throwing them in God’s face and saying “Thanks, but no thanks”. You’re missing out on some serious joy too.

One of the greatest joys in life is being confident in the fact that you are doing what God wants you to be doing. It’s beautiful. And it just feels right. Do you have what it takes to get there?

Find your passion. Find your purpose.