Your life purpose in one or two short sentences – help from John the Baptist.

By mmayer

John 1:6-8,19-28

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

¹⁹Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders^[b] in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. ²⁰He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, ‘I am not the Messiah.’

²¹They asked him, ‘Then who are you? Are you Elijah?’

He said, ‘I am not.’

‘Are you the Prophet?’

He answered, ‘No.’

²²Finally they said, ‘Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’

²³John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”’

²⁴Now the Pharisees who had been sent ²⁵questioned him, ‘Why then do you baptise if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’

²⁶‘I baptise with water,’ John replied, ‘but among you stands one you do not know. ²⁷He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’

²⁸This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.

Video

John the Baptist is one of the great Advent people from Scripture. In the Gospel of John 1:6-8 and 19-28 John the Baptist comes across as having a very strong sense of self, and his life calling. He is to point the way to Jesus. When the religious leaders grilled him about who he was, he was very clear about who he wasn’t. He wasn’t the great prophet foretold by Moses. He wasn’t Elijah, returning from heaven. He wasn’t the Christ. His role was to point to the Christ and get people’s hearts ready to receive him.

I’d love to know how you would describe your life purpose. If you haven’t thought about it specifically, start with John’s approach by saying what you are not. I’m not…… or ……
It can be a big help to eliminate the negatives. Then go to who you are, shaped by your parents, and the experiences of your upbringing. Our parents have shaped us in two ways. There are very strong values we have taken on. There can also be strong choices we have made about what we weren’t going to be like, because of the impact we saw or experienced.

Then there are your own life-experiences. We work out from actual experience what works for us, and what doesn’t. That helps us say what we are good at, and what other’s value in what we do.

Then there are the things that delight us or are vital to who we are. Part of our life purpose has to work with those things. It’s part of how God has made us.

Finally, there is the guidance from John the Baptist that all of us point to Christ and to the gospel of goodness and forgiveness.

Your life purpose – it may include bringing joy, love, mutual support and serving, hope and kindness into other people’s lives, as you are empowered by Christ. Whatever it is – you are precious and vital in God’s kingdom.