What do you want to do with your life? Is it your dream to travel the world? Do you want a job filled with vigor and flux, or do you wish for something much simpler? Maybe you want to stay right in your hometown, though I doubt it. Whatever you do, you will be fulfilling the purpose that you have in this world. I believe that each one of us has a purpose in life.

A few years ago, my pastor’s wife, Nancy, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent months of harsh chemotherapy that stole her hair, her energy, and her appetite. But the one thing it could never thieve was her spirit. Today, she is doing well. During a hard time for my family, when my cousin nearly ended her life after months of relentless bullying and depression, I asked Nancy how it was possible that she have the strength to resist the terrible sickness that tormented her. In response, she quoted Psalm 139, verse 16: “‘all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.’” Nancy explained this passage to me the way she interpreted it after everything she had gone through. She said that God has always known what her purpose would be. She told me that it wasn’t just her own willpower she was feeding off of during those months of illness but also the strength of God. He wasn’t ready to take her from the world because she hadn’t finished what she was on this earth to do. Our conversation was a prime example of one of her purposes: she is here to spread God’s word.

What I have learned from Nancy is that every event is destined and specifically crafted to help us in our search for purpose. Every moment has a heartbeat that is loud, powerful, and infinite. They are heartbeats that will resonate in my memory for the entirety of my life. Each day I live is an opportunity to be better. Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Maybe today is my day to find out. But perhaps there is a much simpler reason for my life today. Maybe my destiny is to dance around the kitchen, sliding on the hardwood in my socks. Maybe my words of encouragement will help someone win a sporting event. Maybe my sole purpose today is to make someone else smile. No one will ever receive everything the world has to offer, but I believe that it gives us enough. We all crave a purpose, and life gifts us with one. I believe that through everything that happens to us, we are being shaped into the people we are meant to be so that we can fulfill the purpose we are meant to have.

This I believe.