Help, I Need a Purpose
by Sabeth Kapahu
Purpose lead us here. Image courtesy of Ian Schneider on Unsplash.
"...if I hadn't been walking down that street on that day at that exact time, I would not be doing the job that I am doing today." There are some days that we give everything we have to seek out our purpose, and other days it finds us.
"...about a year after I got back from Hawaii, I bumped into a guy on the street. I had met him a few times back when I used to sing in night clubs. He asked me if I was still doing music and if I would help him with a project, he was doing. I said okay, ended up making a few songs. Some of the most popular artists in Japan picked up those songs, and I was offered to sign with the agency I'm with now."
Help is a word that defines the human essence of needing someone else. It takes us back to the Garden of Eden when,
"God said, it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."
-Gen 2:18 (ESV)
Fast forward 6,000 years, we are living in a world crying out for help. The population has increased from 2 to over 7.5 billion humans, yet we still find ourselves isolated. We can feel alone in our ideas, passions, or pursuit of purpose. We have left the Garden of Eden and are wandering through the chaos of life searching for our place. Day by day, the voices get louder, calling us to fight for (and against) something greater than ourselves. We find ourselves wondering if we have anything to give?
Or, we've been giving everything we've got and wondered if it is better to give up than to keep trying. We doubt whether we made the right choices or listened to the right people. I know these doubts and the tension between what we expect and what we experience. I also know some talented people who have learned to walk in those tensions while pursuing their God-given purpose and helping others the best way they know-how.I have the immense privilege of sharing them with you.
The magazine of purpose. Image courtesy of Charisse Kenion on Unsplash.
Sometimes these women are in the spotlight but often are behind the scenes shining the light on others. They have learned to use their gifts to give back, serve their families, and add immense value to the pop-culture community world-wide. There are times they have surrendered their gifts for their purpose. And then there are times when their purpose has propped them up in the spotlight. Either way, they have never given up amid the tension.
Our paths crossed when entering Bible College on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We had big dreams, gifts to use, a lot to learn, and no definite path ahead except the studies before us. Now, fifteen years later, we have seven kids, two states, two countries, a wide range of experience, and opportunities. We have seen each other through life's highest joys and darkest valleys. Even if they had to lay a dream down to pick up a new one, they still used their gifts. They have honed in on their abilities and are daily discovering their purpose. They are doing everything to make the world a better place with what they have been given.
Rachel Cruz. Image courtesy of Rachel.
My first friend is Rachel Cruz. When we first met, she was single and struggling to find her voice despite the pressure of trying to become who other people thought she should be. There are many well-meaning people who want to speak into our lives, so it takes a little extra work to find allies who share the same vision as us. "I've always had people in my life who would cheer me on, but if I didn't do things their way, it would negatively affect our relationships. Now that I'm older, I know what I want and that it's not my job to make others happy by becoming their vision of who they think I should be. I've learned to trust my gut and discernment, and that I can succeed if I take time to measure risks and create solid plans of actions."
She began her music career when we graduated in 2010 and has seen many opportunities come and go. Today Rachel is a wife, mom, and C.E.O. of F.A.M.E. Magazine Global, which recently burst onto the fashion, arts, music, and entertainment scene with featured artists such as Blue Kimbal, and Vanessa Williams. I asked what advice she would give to artists just starting their careers in the arts. She said,
"You're entering an industry that makes judgments on your looks, talents, creations, etc. Knowing who you are, what you will and won't tolerate, and coming in with your boundaries (your do's and your don'ts/ your wills or your won'ts), along with a solid support system, is what will keep you grounded."
The music of purpose. Image courtesy of Bruno Emmanuelle on Unsplash.
These words don't just apply to those going into the arts, but each of us as we walk into a whole new world amidst a global pandemic. It is almost as if the world is starting back at square one. We get a chance to re-frame out why as we pursue purpose.
The journey towards living our purpose includes the tension between our gifts and the circumstances we've been given. There are seasons these fit together like a puzzle, and other times they seem to war against each other. But, when our surrender supersedes purpose, we become a powerful force no matter what our circumstance.
Lauren via https://www.facebook.com/laurenhoriipage
My second friend is Lauren. She is a wife, mom, and a gifted singer/songwriter journeying through the tensions of balancing a variety of roles. She is figuring out how to make the dueling realities her abilities and necessities complement each other rather than wage that war of balance with our purpose. Her list of accomplishments include:
writing songs for platinum-certified artists in Japan and Korea, reaching #1 on Japan's Oricon and iTunes Music charts,
having songs chosen as an ending credits for four T.V.T.V. anime and the main theme for two T.V.T.V. series, one movie, and several T.V.T.V. commercial songs.
the official Japanese translator for Hillsong Music, including the Grammy Award-winning "What A Beautiful Name It Is."
Her amazing accomplishments are only a sliver of her story. A more in-depth look into the reality of her daily life finds, "...homeschooling a 1st grader, supporting a depressed husband and caring for preschoolers, I have no time or energy to think about how to better my gifting." Through the screen, we see amazing accomplishments, but they have been met with incredible challenges and equally amazing surrender. She says, "There were moments in my life when I decided in my heart to surrender my life to God."
Our purpose must be shaped by something bigger than ourselves and what we strive to portray through a screen, especially in our social media age. In describing her relationship with the Bible, Lauren says, "I'm in the music industry, which means that what we create is always being compared and judged by many people. Having something as personal as your artistic expression judged and often rejected can be difficult. Many people want to be in your spot, so things can get very stressful very fast. The Bible has helped me to remember what really matters which is how God sees me, not others, and that God placed me in the industry by His will and all I must do is to show up, and I get to show Christ by doing so because he lives in me."
The pursuit of purpose often looks like setting goals and then coming to a place of surrendering them. Purpose includes encountering strangers and bearing each other's burdens. Sometimes we think we are called to one thing, and find ourselves pouring into something completely different. For some, it changes with the seasons, and for others, it sticks for a lifetime.
Ashley. Image courtesy of Ashley.
My third and final friend is Ashley. The journey to developing and pursuing her passions has not been easy. She has experienced peaks, valleys, yes's and no's and all the twists and turns in-between. Yet, she remains stalwart, setting her sights on how to make a difference doing what she loves.
"When I was a little girl, I had a strong sense of my purpose or dreams if you want to call it that. It's never left. One of my greatest obstacles has been letting others shape my journey instead of living out my own truths authentic to me. Discovering these truths has given me the freedom to pursue my purpose in full force."
This full force pursuit of her purpose took her from the little island on which we met to a big city where she's finally found the space where her purpose and passions collide into a thriving career. Ashley's currently working with a non-profit that takes literacy, and the arts to communities across New York and shoots national commercials, film, voiceover, and television regularly. She has written and starred in her own children's educational theatre show and toured with multiple theatre companies. Her career has taken dips and turns and climbed to peaks, but all along the way, she never lost sight of what she knew she loved and was gifted with.
How do we reconcile the tension between a culture that calls us to a particular performance-driven purpose with the desire to surrender our lives to God? Where do our beliefs in the Bible and our lives inundated with Pop Culture collide?
In the stories of these everyday superheroes, the drive and surrender intertwine throughout daily life. As women, wives, moms, and friends, we get a unique opportunity to see how with each new season, our gifts ebb and flow from the forefront to the foundation as our purpose sharpens. This doesn't mean that it is always clear or easy, but the most important thing is that it is always there. It comes in saying yes over and over again to a script to memorize, a song to write, a blank canvas to fill, a mouth to feed, or a neighbor to serve as we strive to 'never give up, do life with others and help with what we've got as we awaken the superhero within.
Fuel Your Passion. Image courtesy of Randalyn Hill on Unsplash.
Resources
We’ve created a free downloadable PDF to explore the article deeper. It contains discussion questions about the topic in general terms that will give you a jumping-off point for beginning a conversation.
The second page contains a way to see the topic from a biblical perspective.
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