God’s Purpose for Each of Us

When I was approaching my high school graduation and the decision about where to go to college still loomed, I remember feeling overwhelmed by the seeming enormity of what lay before me. In a Facebook post from that time, I wrote: 

“People go on and on about how I shouldn’t worry about college and what I want to major in, cause God will make it clear…yea, hasn’t so much happened so far, and I like to know what’s next. I don’t like having no clue of what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life. I can’t really imagine myself doing any job, and yet I’m going to have to make a final decision at some point.” 

I had grown up attending Christian schools (and ended up selecting a Christian college as well), but I had mistakenly developed the thinking that God’s purpose for me both could and should involve a path that was both distinctly ​​“Christian​”​ and would make a noticeable difference in the world. It’s very likely that I prayed for God to send me a burning bush to show me what to do, because it seemed to me that Moses was a lucky guy to have his purpose laid out so clearly. 

As we learn in Exodus 2, from the beginning of his life, God set Moses apart by having him be saved during the time when Pharaoh had decreed all Israelite baby boys be killed. And not saved by just anyone, but saved by Pharaoh’s daughter and taken to live in the palace. Many years went by, and Moses, after making a rash decision that ended with him committing murder, ran away. There, he not only survived, but found a wife and made a life among her family.  

Meanwhile, back in Egypt, the Israelites’ situation had not improved. They were still enslaved and working under the thumb of the Pharaoh. 

Then, God stepped in—in quite dramatic fashion. God appeared to Moses in a burning bush to tell him exactly what to do (Exodus 3). When Moses tried to balk, to tell God that surely he was not the right person for the job, God allowed Aaron to go along to help Moses. The work God had for Moses and Aaron to do wasn’t easy or comfortable, but they persevered in bringing message after message to Pharaoh as the plagues continued. Eventually, Moses led God’s people out of their captivity in Egypt.  

​​All throughout his life, God was working to place Moses where God needed him to be. ​​​ 

​​​How God’s Purpose Transforms the Everyday​​​​ 

​​As much as I wish I could relate to a story like Moses’, I can’t. Despite my requests for it, both in choosing a college and many times since then, God has never shown up to me in so much as a singed houseplant, much less a whole bush set ablaze. When I’ve had big life decisions to make, or even the many small ones that can still be difficult, I’ve looked for bits and pieces of helpful advice in prayers, devotional readings, or encouragement from others that might point me in the right direction. But my concern over making the wrong choice reveals my struggle to trust that God is always at work, in every piece of my life​. ​​ 

Do I really believe that since God did not let Moses miss his purpose, he won’t let me miss mine? 

Throughout my college journey, I began to see that my view of purpose had gotten too small. There were—and are—many people in my life who are faithful to the work God has called them to, whether that work is in a bank, church, restaurant, or right at home.​​​​ I had gotten caught up in thinking ​​purpose and career had to be intertwined​—​while they can be, they don’t have to be. God’s ultimate purpose for us is to love, serve, and follow him. We can do all of those things faithfully no matter what our day-to-day work might look like. Paid or unpaid, on a stage or behind the scenes, we’re able to live out God’s purpose in every aspect of our everyday lives.  

When he ran away, Moses spent years tending his father-in-law’s sheep–seemingly quite a step down from his upbringing in Pharaoh’s palace and his eventual work of leading God’s people out of Egypt. Yet he was still fulfilling God’s purpose in those fields, both in the everyday work he did and on the day that tending sheep led him to the place where he encountered the burning bush.  

Parts of our lives may feel more like sheep tending than leading an Israelite army, but ​there is no insignificant work when it’s done for God’s glory.​ Our purpose today may look like sending a lot of emails, waiting in the pickup line at school, saying yes to helping with the monotonous spreadsheet, or any number of small-feeling tasks. Maybe our purpose tomorrow and for the next twenty years will look the same, or maybe God will use today’s tasks to show us the fresh purpose he has for us for tomorrow. But all of it will always be oriented to our most important purpose of all—loving and serving God. 

—Written by Brianna DeWitt. Used by permission from the author.