Living for a Purpose

March 16th, 2003, was the day the world lost a brave and inspiring activist. Rachel Corrie was killed while using her body as a human shield to protect a Palestinian family's home from being leveled to the ground by Israeli bulldozers. You may argue that it was Rachel's fault. Traveling from the safety of The Evergreen State College's suburban campus to the bullied city of Gaza was a risky trip to take (even though she spent the whole time in a residential zone). A risk that can potentially cost you your life. But to Rachel, becoming a spectator to the demolition of people's homes prompted a greater risk; the risk of losing her sense of purpose. For without a sense of purpose, we are sheep.

Now I'm not asking you to spin a globe and head to the first war torn country that your finger lands on à la The Last King of Scotland but I humbly suggest that we take a look at the skills and tools that God blessed us with and use them to find our calling. Whether it is through your knowledge, your art, your social skills or even through raising your children, each and everyone of us has the ability to leave a positive mark on this world if, and only if, the intention is there. Most of us might already be motivated by a goal in life such as earning that degree, working hard for that promotion or even trying to get married. But unless the intention and end goal is to serve God and benefit people, chances are those goals will not end up as fulfilling as you might have hoped.

If you think that "finding your purpose" is too cliché or that you have nothing to give to this world, I can assure you that you are wrong. In most cases, our purpose is not well defined at first but I do believe that our sense of purpose grows organically once the seed, our intentions, is planted inside of us. So much can happen once that seed is planted.

At her 5th grade speech, Rachel Corrie was advocating for the hungry in Africa. At the age of 10, she probably had a stronger sense of purpose than most people twice her age. We can also look at the story of Joinal Abedin, the humble rickshaw driver who has been saving money for 30 years to finally build a clinic in a remote village in Bangladesh at the age of 65. Or maybe we can look at the story of Master Ayoub who has been teaching thousands children in Pakistan for free for 25 years just to give them a chance to pursue a better quality of life. We can also look at the work of Salman Khan, a man who earned three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard. He quit his high paying job as a hedge fund analyst to teach math and science to thousands of people around the world for free through Youtube videos. After living off saved money and donations for a few years, he eventually established the Khan Academy which is now supported by Bill Gates.

There are plenty of other amazing stories of such heroes around the world and we probably will never hear about them through mainstream media. However, I am certain that those people are more fulfilled in their lives than most millionaires, celebrities and other so called "successful" people. And what is the one thing they all have in common? The intention to serve.

We are never too young, too old, too poor or too busy to renew our intentions, plant that seed and find our purpose. The farther we go with that intention the more doors God will open for us. Eventually, we will realize that the happy fulfilling life that we all dream of is a by-product of striving to serve God. And if you ever get derailed from your original intention, just renew it and start over.