We all believe that we have different dreams when we’re all rushing toward the same goal unknowingly. A goal that we think is certain to us until later on we face the reality that we’re really chasing the wind. Without a purpose, our drive to live is meaningless and will only lead us to a dead-end destination. There is absolutely no life in what we do if our lives are measured up by our prosperity, if our survival depends on our physical bread, our daily struggle; when life was simply meant to be lived not be a struggle. Perhaps many can relate to this, I’m usually not so good at remembering names. I tend to forget where I used to be and what has changed my life. I tend to repeat history even when I know it didn’t do me any good and will only cause more harm. The worst of all, the very one event I ought to forget is usually the one that keeps coming back to memory. Whereas, I can’t seem to be able to keep up with the incredible moments I want to be reminded of. How amazing is our thought process!

Many times, we take a different approach to life, we draw a line after a lesson is learned from an inspiring movie or an addictive show. The theme was so relevant to our current situation that we decide to apply it to our own personal lives. We thought that this would transform us for good and forever change the way we see life, only to realize it changed us temporarily. Within just a few months, that aspect of life, that lesson we learned is long gone as we turn back and give in to our old selves, not realizing the life portrayed on TV was simply just a mask. But if we have to learn a lesson a lot more than once, it will be the most valuable lesson we’ll ever regret. We should be proud of our accomplishments, but that same pride should never take over our integrity. As much as we sometimes try to convince the world that we know what we’re doing, we believe we can manage on our own, a life without integrity is not worth living. Satisfaction, however, is never guaranteed and never comes along even after we finally have something we were in desperate need of. As we look up to what the world has to offer us, something or someone is always missing somehow. We need not to rely on our own knowledge, but seek and pray for a purpose that glorifies God, knowing what we choose do with our lives could always conflict with the plan he has in store for us.

As the true light shines in almost every area of my life, my purpose is found in the opposite direction of pride. I no longer depend on my own understanding. Believing in myself no longer exceeds believing and fearing God. For school teaches history and pride but not entrepreneurship or wisdom. School, for most part, teaches how to be an employee but not an employer. My substitute teacher forever changed my point of view about numbers when he asked me, “Where do you see yourself ten years from now?” Most people would say they have plenty of time. They’d think ten years is a lifetime and start diving into the sea of emptiness been offered to them. They’d forget about how they got up to that point in their life and probably never even have a chance to see life past through themselves. 

At least, I didn’t get to rush to answer my teacher. If I had a chance to answer, I wouldn’t be so proud today as I was back then. If I was to answer it today, I would want my response to match who I truly am. I would want to answer it in a way that shows my deepest gratitude. Ten years from now I would want to see myself looking back and remember how I truly lived life; I would prefer to be disappointed more by the things I do than by the ones I didn’t do. I would want what I have done to inspire others to aim for even a much closer relationship with him. Life is but a watch. Though our given purpose is yet to be found, we are more than just hands of second on its platform. To live a life not simply to be worth remembered is to let my memory be my treasure box, to let it not be a place for empty promises but a travel bag to store and own what I can always cherish forever. For my life purpose is a never-ending equation of subtracting the wrongs from rights. My life purpose is a perpetual practice of remembrance and expression of gratitude. My life purpose is a poetic process of recording, storing, and sharing the transactions of life pertaining to the sole source of the truth: the bible.

Proverbs 19:21 “You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.”