Discover Your Purpose in Life!

by Lydia Rule

 

It’s the one question you don’t want to be asked. It’s the one question that can leave you with an embarrassed “I don’t know” on your tongue. It’s the one thing you’ll be asked innumerable times, especially right around high school graduation time: “What are you going to do with your life?”

 

Life Purpose Planning—A Tool for Finding Direction

For Rachel Corres, the answer to that question started with CollegePlus! and the Life Purpose Planning program. Life Purpose Planning is a series of five assignments that challenges students to know the Lord more intimately by discovering His purpose for their lives. (Click here to find out more about life purpose!) Rachel, who started CollegePlus! in October 2006, worked her way through the Life Purpose Planning workbook and challenged herself to truly seek after God and to find His will for her life.

After prayerfully considering each Life Purpose assignment, Rachel found a sense of direction for her future. “[Life Purpose Planning] has challenged me to pray and seek God,” she said. “It’s challenged me to ask God, ‘What do You want me to do?’ It’s opened my eyes to the clues that were there,” she said.

 

Rachel Corres, CollegePlus! Student

Parents' Perspective

Rachel’s parents, Virgilio and Emily Corres, were also enthusiastic about this direction-oriented facet of CollegePlus! “Life Purpose Planning, I believe, has had a very good impact on her. It focused her mind, giving her a sense of direction, a sense of forward-looking,” said Virgilio.

Emily, Rachel’s mother, noted that the book was “the most important thing,” not just for students seeking guidance in choosing a career path, but for parents as well. For example, Emily used Life Purpose Planning as a part of her own devotions.

Rachel’s advice to those seeking God's direction is straightforward. “Try to stay motivated. You can get easily discouraged. Remember that what you’re doing is for God.” Her life motto is the faithful expression “Try, try again.”

 

Getting Thoughts Down on Paper

Abigail Fatkins, who started CollegePlus! last August and lives in Alabama, said that Life Purpose Planning solidified what God had been impressing on her heart for some time. “It helped me put what I was sensing into words,” she said. “There was a certain day when it just ‘clicked.’” Prior to seeking the Lord through Life Purpose Planning, Abigail knew that God wanted her to study history—but until she completed the assignments she wasn’t sure why.

Now, however, she has clearer direction from the Lord. Although Abigail says that she loves the United States, she sees that the direction the country is heading will not be beneficial in the long run. “I am supposed to study history because if I see how things worked in the past, I will clearly see what is happening in the present and [what could happen] in the future,” she said.

Indeed, after studying history over the past few months, Abigail has realized that the United States “wasn’t quite what I perceived it to be,” she said. While Abigail said that she is proud to be an American, she senses that studying history will help her stem the tide of corruption that is sweeping the nation.

 

Pursue Your Passion!

Rachel Corres, on the other hand, has two passions: art and music. Although her first attempts at artistic expression were drawing figures on a television screen with her mother’s lipstick, Rachel has enjoyed developing her artistic talents more fully. In music, it started with the bang of her first piano keys and then to her eventual participation in choir competitions. She has taken part in a choral competition in Toronto, winning first place in her division and third place overall. Rachel credited her father for his role in pushing her to use her voice to minister to others.

God often uses a person’s unique talents to point to what He wants them to do. Rachel’s abilities in the art and music spheres can lead to many potential career opportunities. She found that Life Purpose Planning has taught her to be open to the Lord’s leading. Psalm 139:1-4, Rachel’s favorite passage, is applicable to anyone who is unsure what God wants them to pursue: “O Lord, Thou hast asearched me and known me. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, And art intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, Thou dost know it all.” (NASB). When you can’t discern what God’s direction may be, seek Him to find out His perfect plan!

Lydia Rule is CollegePlus! student working on her bachelor's degree in English and is a contributing editor to Acceleration.

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