Purpose Driven Life

Disclaimer:

I wrote a letter to my friend Cheryl last week. I thought it was a really good letter explaining a recent insight I had had. I also want to share the insight in my blog, but I don't want to write another batch of prose, so I thought that I would shamelessly plagiarize my letter to Cheryl and put it here. Cheryl, if you ever read this post, please know that your letter came first, and it was a personal letter, not a bulk letter. It was bulkified after the fact. :)

The Body:

Well, I had a rich weekend, and I don't mean calorically (well, any more than usual) or monetarily. I had an emotionally rich weekend. I feel like Dad communicated with me. Not on the burning bush or dove and clouds scale. Rather, during my bus ride to fellowship on Sunday, I had a cognitive breakthrough, and two hours later while I was accompanying the congregational singing on the piano, I had the corresponding emotional breakthrough.

I have been reading The Purpose Driven Life. Now my speed is not laudable (5 chapters in 2 months), but understand that I cannot get my hands on an English copy (the only person I know here who has it in English has herself borrowed it and declined my request to sub-lend it to me), so I have no choice except to read in Chinese. The beneficial side effect is that I think deeply about each sentence. Early on, I detected that there was something significant about the book, but I could not put my finger on it. I was missing some foundational point, which hampered my grasping where the author was going--until the bus ride yesterday.

On the bus, it dawned on me that I had .... a specific created purpose, that is, that Dad had an intention in mind when He created me. Now, don't laugh too hard at the remedial nature of the "enlightenment". It quite typical for my propensity for complexity to interfere with understanding--or even noticing--simple truths. Also, suspend for a moment the fact that this was the topic of chapter 1, and I did not "get" it until chapter 5. There was some serious interference going on here, which I will blushingly document here.

Apparently, I did not distinguish "purpose" and "goal" in my idiolect. I thought the book was about setting goals, but he was getting to that end in a rather round-about fashion. The fact that the title of the book had the word purpose in it did not phase me since purpose did not have an identity separate from goal. It did not help that I was reading in Chinese and could not possibly distinguish between mubiao (目标) and mudi (目的) even if you offered me 10 kilos of bleu cheese.

Anyway, when this truth floated into my brain on the bus, it was a startling epiphany. I had incorrectly believed that Dad's intention for me was just like his for everyone: the generic "glorify Dad by enjoying him forever". All of a sudden, I racing through passages in my mind, looking for corroboration. I found it. Acts 13:36, Luke 7:30, and 2 Timothy 2:20-21 taken together imply three things:

• Dad has specific purposes for each person.
• A person can fail to achieve those purposes.
• The decisions that a person makes increase or decrease the statistical probability of achieving those purposes.

This got my attention, so I began brainstorming what might these created purposes be? I started to feel excitement, inspiration, hope. I analyzed talents and passions. It also occurred to me to analyze besetting weaknesses since created purposes probably would attract demonic attention. The epiphany crested about two hours later when I was accompanying the singing (intentional tsunami reference). In my emotions I felt that part of my created purpose had to do with music.

Since today was a Mid-Autumn Festival, I had some time on my hands. I intensely listened to Bach's Passion According to St. Matthew, a 3.5 hour oratorio in German. (I had basically stopped listening to classical music in China, for no better reason than busyness). Realizing that one of my created purposes depended upon music, I knew I needed to prime the pump. I was struck by Mary Magdalene and decided that she would be my provisional role model. Then since there was a therapist in town to volunteer her services for a couple days, I met with her for two hours. Then I came home and worked on the first draft of my created purpose.

Epilogue:

Since the purpose statement is now in its second draft, I will not include the remainder of the letter, which was documenting the first draft. Here is the second draft:

To glorify God's beauty by enjoying music and by empowering others to enjoy it.

To glorify God's creativity by enjoying Chinese culture and by developing a command of Mandarin.

To glorify God's personal involvement in people's lives by enjoying friendships with Chinese people and by discipling them.

To glorify God's orderliness by enjoying solving technical problems and by pursuing excellence in software engineering.

To glorify God's power to redeem sexual brokenness by enjoying the clean conscience that accompanies purity and by leading others to also enjoy it through transparent testimony.