I’ve gotten more reflective as I’ve grown older.

I don’t know if that’s because I’ve got more leisure time to just sit and think, or if that’s just something that comes with age. 

In either or any case, I’ve been thinking recently about something I was told many years ago. It’s rather personal, but this is what I was told.

When my mother was expectant with me she was 35 years old. I would be her firstborn.

When she was about to deliver, my father was asked, “Do you want your wife or your child?”

I was never told the reason for that question, nor was I ever told what he answered, although I think I know.

As it turned out, he got the both of us, and I think I know why.

Something God said to the prophet Jeremiah come to mind in this regard. Jeremiah wrote it down, and here is what he said:

“I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5, GOOD NEWS BIBLE).

I take from that that God had a purpose for me, and that’s why I am here. It was to be his spokesman. I was in his mind and on his heart even before he gave me life. His thoughts of me have never ceased as well. I won’t recount the events but will just say that there have been several times when his mercy and preventive grace have spared my life.

It was not until the age of 14, when I gave my life to Christ, that it became clear to me that my purpose for being, my calling in life, was to be a spokesman for him, and I dedicated my life to the pursuit of it. Finding my purpose for being and pursuing it has brought meaning to my life.

While not everyone is called as Jeremiah to be a prophet, or even to be his spokesperson as a preacher, everybody has a God-given purpose for being and a calling in life. To discover one’s purpose and calling and to pursue it is to find meaning in life.

Have you discovered your’s?