Today so many people are feeling purposeless and empty. If you are feeling that way, I encourage you to read on, because there is a way that you can find purpose and satisfyingly fill the emptiness inside.
Long ago, Aristotle perceived that there are four different kinds of causes which make living and non-living things come into being. Knowing your causes will help point the way to finding purpose and fulfillment.
Effective Causes: These are the living things and processes which cause things to come into being. According to the Genesis account in the Bible, the effective cause of human beings is God.
Material Causes: These are the materials something is made of. The material causes of a human being are the elements of the earth. This is why, as the book of Genesis tells us, after we die and all of the water evaporates, we return to dust.
The Formal Cause. This is the arrangement and form of something. For instance, your form is that of a human being, in which spirit and body (including your brain) have been intelligently designed and arranged by God to form a living soul or being.
Final Causes: These are the purposes for which something has been made. Obviously, only an intelligent being who is an efficient cause, or perhaps someone who is using and benefitting from a thing can tell us what its final causes are. For instance, the final causes of the Lincoln Memorial are to honor and enshrine the memory of Abraham Lincoln.
To this list we Christians would add one more cause, the immaterial cause. This is the immaterial spirit substance that our eternal spirits are made of.
It is number 4 above that I especially want to draw your attention to. What are your primary purposes, which Aristotle referred to as your final causes? This is also sometimes called your teleology.
In order to know what your primary purposes are, you must consult the effective cause of the human race, which is God. God is the only one who can tell us the reasons why He created us.
As Oxford math professor John Lennox has pointed out, when you pay your aunt a visit, you might think that delicious-smelling cake she just made is for you to enjoy, until she says, “I am sorry sweetie, but you can't have any of that cake because I made it for my ladies’ Sunday school class. But here, I made some cookies for you.”
When she says that, you will realize, with some disappointment, that what you thought was the purpose of that cake was incorrect. But you might have realized that yourself if only you had looked closely enough at it and seen the words “Ladies’ Night Out” written in icing on it! Likewise, you can look at your formal cause, the form in which you are made, to get some hints as to your primary purposes.
There is an important saying among engineers, architects and designers, “Form follows purpose.” Men and women have different forms and designs, and that should help us to determine our purposes, which obviously are not completely identical. Your unique talents, strengths and abilities will also give you some ideas as to the purposes God had in mind when He made you.
But many people have identified their talents, strengths and abilities and have found ways to use them, but they still feel a deep sense of purposelessness which they cannot quite identify yet. This is a red flag that they are still missing out on some very important purposes in life.
Just as it is only your aunt who can tell you all of the reasons why she made that cake, if you want to know all of the reasons why God made you, then you need to consult God Himself. Fortunately, you do not need to beg God to tell you the most important reasons why He made you, because He has already communicated these to us in His written word, the Bible. So let’s look at the very most important reasons that God has told us why He created us.
Our Primary Purpose
When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied,
“’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” This is the first and greatest commandment.
In regard to this, the best opportunities to love a person come when you spend time with them. We can do this the very best when we live together, work together, or do activities together with someone. God knows this, and so He made us to be temples in whom He lives, and through whom He works. Writing to Christians, the Apostle Paul wrote,
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” -1 Corinthians 6:19
Just think about the significance of this! God made us to be living beings in whom He dwells or lives, so that we can enjoy a relationship of love with Him. What a wonderful, fascinating purpose! If you have been feeling empty, could it be because God is not dwelling in you? In this verse, the Apostle Paul specifically mentioned the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as our Helper. The Holy Spirit helps us by guiding us, comforting us, healing us, and strengthening and empowering us to live for God. If He is not dwelling in you, then it is no wonder that you feel empty!
Jesus said something that sheds further light on this. He said,
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
Now, you must know the importance of meals back in the first century, which is when this was written, to understand the full significance of what Jesus said here. Back then, when people did not have cell phones, radios, systems, computers and TV to distract them, the conversations that took place at meals were their primary form of entertainment. This was when they took a break from their hard work to get to know, converse with, and enjoy their family and friends. So what Jesus is saying is that if you invite Him into you to live, you are going to enjoy, fellowship with, and become friends with Him. just like people do at the kind of nice, enjoyable Thanksgiving meals that make for good memories.
So we can identify our very highest purpose by what Jesus said above.
Our highest purpose is for God to dwell inside of us as our dear friend, and for us to enjoy Him, love Him and serve Him with all of our being.
If you have not invited the triune God (which is Jesus, His Father, and the Holy Spirit) to come and dwell within you, made up your mind to love Him with all of your being, and begun to experience the sweet joys of friendship and fellowship with Him, then you are missing out on your very most important purpose in life. You are not fulfilling what Aristotle would have called your primary final cause!
Our Second Most Important Purpose
But you have a secondary final cause too, and that is what Jesus called the second greatest commandment:
“And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” - Matthew 22:39–40.
Jesus also said,
“Do unto others as you would have them unto you.”
This is known as The Golden Rule. Confucious said something similar. He said,
“Don’t do anything to others that you would not want done to you.”
This is called the Silver Rule, and it is also a very important moral principle. But the way Jesus said it is so much better, because by it we can clearly see that we should love others by doing good things for them, not just refraining from doing bad things to them.
Many people manage to live by the Silver Rule, but still feel unfulfilled, because they are not living by the Golden Rule.
Lastly, Jesus also gave us a new commandment that is so important that it deserves to be ranked together with the four commandments we have already discussed.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” - John 13:34-35
Look at how God made you. What are your giftings, abilities and talents? God intended you not just to use these for yourself, but primarily to use them to love and serve others. Perhaps you already have identified your giftings and talents and are using them.
But are you using them to love, help and serve others, or just for your own happiness and fulfillment? If not, this might explain why you still feel that your life is empty and without purpose. The apostle Paul wrote,
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
If you are not doing good deeds for others with the talents God has given you, you are missing out on one your most important purposes. Even a quadriplegic can do good works by loving God, smiling, saying kind and encouraging words to others, and praying for them, so loving others lies within the reach of just about everyone.
We can therefore summarize our two greatest purposes with one simple phrase:
Love God and others, and enjoy their love.
Oh sure, you have other purposes, but do not let the less important ones crowd out these, the most important ones. In fact, it will only be when you put loving God and others first that you will discover and best fulfill your other purposes. This is why Jesus said that all of the commandments in the Law and Prophets hang upon these two commands, which are to love God and others.
So love God and others in your thoughts, words and actions, in the ways that God uniquely designed you to do it. Do this, and your life will not be meaningless or empty. Do this well, and your arrow will strike not only within the bull’s eye, but also within all of the circles that surround it.
You will have discovered and fulfilled your true purposes!