Post 1 - My Search for a New Purpose

My Search for A New Purpose

This blog is the story of how I found a new purpose, a purpose I should have recognized years ago.

I am a storyteller, that’s all, have been for a long time.  My niece, Nicki, used to enjoy my stories, she still calls me “Uncle Storyteller” when she sends a message by Facebook.  This is my story about a search adventure, I believe you will enjoy it. 

I recently realized that a lot of people are searching for a new purpose, so I thought some of them may want to hear the story of how I discovered mine.  My search took me and my wife to Belize, and when we explored an abandoned city and climbed an ancient pyramid, our Mayan guide told us a folklore legend.  This Mayan tale led me to discover a new purpose. 

You don’t have to go to Belize to discover what I learned.  I’m putting my story on this blog, convenient and free for anyone who wants to read it.  It’s an exciting story, I promise that.

Are you searching for a new purpose?  If so, you are not alone.  When Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life, was published, it quickly sold more than thirty million copies.  That is a huge number of books, a lot of people were searching for a purpose.

I wasn’t.  Unlike those who bought that book, I had a purpose, or I thought I did.  I designed computer systems and wrote the instruction books for them.  I thought that was my purpose and I was satisfied with it, but the computer business changes quickly.  The company where I worked decided to downsize, and I was given an early retirement, too early.  I was not ready for it. 

Two friends and I invested a few thousand dollars in a business, and that became my new purpose.  For a brief time, I was happy with that, but I began to spend long hours at the new business, and even longer hours worrying because it was not working out as well as we expected.  It was losing money month after month, and I was becoming anxious.

Virginia, my wife, said I needed a new purpose.  Our daughter had a different idea, she told me that I needed a break.  She said I needed to get away from the business for a while, far away.  She invited me and Virginia to join her on a vacation to Belize.  While we were gone, maybe the manager would make the business profitable.  That was the manager’s job, and if she did it then I wouldn’t need to worry about the business anymore.

That is not what happened.  In this blog, I describe the trip and how it led me to discover the purpose I should have recognized years earlier, but I was too busy taking care of the problems that came with each day and I missed it.

That cost me a lot of needless pain and expense.

Fortunately, I was given a second chance.  Thank God for second chances, for showing me a second time the purpose I should be following.

It’s never too late for a second chance!  You may miss an opportunity that will not return, but it's never too late for a second chance to seek out a better path for your life.

This blog tells the true story of how I discovered my better path, how I discovered the purpose that had already been revealed to me.  Your purpose may have been revealed the same way, I know others who have discovered theirs this way, and I will tell you about some of them. 

If you have not yet signed on as a follower of this blog to find out how I discovered my purpose, I encourage you to do so.  Just look at the top right of this post and join this site.

The Purpose Driven Life

At the beginning of this blog, I mentioned Rick Warren’s hugely popular book, The Purpose Driven Life.  Rick Warren is a preacher, and his book is aimed at an audience of church people.  It gives a forty day program of Bible study intended to show that God creates everybody for a purpose, and it says that after you complete the study, God will send you a ‘revelation’ to show you what your purpose is.  That is a rather bold prediction.

I have seen no survey that tells how many of his readers found their purpose by the promised ‘revelation’ after completing that study.  I cannot tell you how many did, and I cannot tell you how many did not.  That doesn’t matter to me, or to my story.

This blog is the true story of how I discovered my purpose.  I cannot predict what God will do for you.  Somebody who predicts what God will do is called a prophet, and I do not claim to be a prophet.  That’s a risk I am not willing to take, because a prophet’s predictions must come true.  If they do not, then the prophet is false and the penalty is very severe.  The penalty is death.

I threw that in just in case you are tempted someday to predict what God is going to do for you, or for somebody else.  I am merely telling what happened to me, and what has happened to others I know.  I’m a storyteller, that’s all.  I’m not predicting anything.

I was disappointed that Rick Warren’s book does not give any examples of people actually finding their purpose by using his recommended ‘revelation’ method.  Neither does it define what a purpose is, that purpose its forty day program is going to help you find.

This blog corrects those two omissions by that book.  It defines what a purpose is, far different than I used to believe, and it gives examples of using what I call the ‘discovery’ method for finding the purpose intended for us.  It also tells how we can look for signs that will tell if we are on the correct path, or if we need to change direction.

If you are one of the thirty million people who bought that book to help you find your purpose, you may want to also read this blog.   That book provides a religious theory, a start for your search, and this blog describes a practical approach to that personal problem, a way to complete the search.  It also gives real life examples to show how this practical approach has worked to help me and others find our purpose.

If you are not studying that book, just read this blog, perhaps it will give you what you need without spending the money for the book or following its forty day program of study. 

This blog will surprise you, I guarantee that.  It takes you to Belize, where we climb pyramids the ancient Mayans abandoned a thousand years ago, and we explore the ruins of cities that were recently excavated from the jungle that had buried them.  We will study the Mayan folklore legend I was told, and our search for a scrap of truth in that tale will lead us to a reasonable answer to the question of why the ancients abandoned their cities in Belize.  That is the Mayan Mystery.  Why did those ancient people walk away from their many achievements and never return?

No researcher has yet provided a satisfactory answer to that mystery.

This blog is more than a travel adventure, it also tells the story of my search for my purpose.  It makes extensive use of three rules I learned during my search.  I call them ‘Principles For Understanding Your Purpose.’  These three principles are:  (1) A purpose is not a job or a goal, (2) God is no dummy, he plans ahead, and (3) Our purpose is not kept a secret from us, we will see indicators that point the way.

I realize that some people reading Rick Warren’s book, especially the more religious readers, will not like the practical method described in this blog.  They will say it does not depend enough on faith, they prefer the religious theory approach.  I have nothing against being religious, some people consider me that, but I have an unforgettable experience with depending on a religious theory.

Years ago, a friend of mine was known for his great faith, he depended on prayer, miracles, and revelations to help him make his practical decisions.  For example, he and his family did not go to a doctor when sick, they got together and read the Bible and prayed about it, and their good health always returned.  He said that is what happens when two or more believers ask for something in the name of Jesus.  He said the Bible guarantees it.

He had great faith.

When his wife discovered a lump in her breast, he announced in our Bible study group that they were going to cure it ‘by faith.’  He asked his most righteous friends, those with the greatest faith, to pray for God to remove the lump, because the Bible says, ‘the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.’  He didn’t ask me, I didn’t meet the conditions, I suppose. 

The lump continued to grow. 

He searched the Bible to find out what they should do next, and he carefully followed each instruction for healing the sick.  After months of this, we could see that his wife was in trouble.  He called the elders of the church to come and pray over her and anoint her with oil in the name of the Lord, as stated in the letter from James, and they did.  She died a painful death.

Faith is good.  But, don’t bet your life on it!

I realize that I may be criticized by some for lack of faith.  I have faith that God knows what he is doing, but not the faith that my actions or my rituals will impose any requirements on God.

The following posts tell the entire story of how I discovered my purpose.  Perhaps your purpose is being revealed the same way.  I didn’t invent this ‘discovery’ method, I merely recognized it.  This method is practical, I know others who used it before I did.  Best of all, it doesn't cost you any money. 

Why am I doing this?  What am I getting out of it? 

I’m a storyteller, that's all.  I enjoy telling stories.  I am telling the story of what has happened to me, and I don’t charge for that.  I’m putting the story in this blog, where it is convenient and free.  I don’t want somebody to miss it because they won’t spend money on a book they may not like and may not work.  If you don’t like it, you haven’t wasted any money.  But if it works for you as it did for me, it can change your life. 

          There's no guarantee, I'm no prophet, you know.  I'm just a storyteller, and I hope you enjoy my story.  This is Post 1, the story continues on posts that follow this.