“Don’t ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive” (Howard Thurman).

Do you believe that God created you for a specific purpose?  I do–with every fiber of my being.  However, not everyone believes this.  To paraphrase Henry David Thoreau, many people lead lives of “quiet desperation.”  In other words, some people simply make it through the day, without believing they have a specific mission.  This is a great tragedy.

To live with passion and purpose, we must believe in the depths of our hearts that we’re alive for a mission, that God has placed us here do something great.  This doesn’t mean that every day will be perfect or that we won’t suffer.  But it does mean that when we encounter difficulties we can always remind ourselves why we’re here.  The more we’re aligned with our God-given purpose, the more fully alive we will be.

So how can we know our purpose?  I don’t pretend to have a magic formula, and I’m not going to promise you any life-changing insights.  What I can offer are some simple spiritual steps that you can take to begin to know your purpose and to live it.  I offer these spiritual steps to you in the form of an acronymn, using the word “Purpose.”  In two posts I’ll use each letter to offer a particular insight.  This post will concern the first three letters and will be focused on how to know your purpose. Read more »