"Isn't it fantastic that if there is no purpose you have nothing to fulfill. You can just live.
But no. You want a purpose and not just a simple purpose, but a God given purpose.
It's very dangerous. People who think they have a God given purpose are doing the cruelest things on the planet. They are doing the most horrible things. And they have always been doing the most horrible things. Because when you are given a God given purpose, life here becomes less important than your purpose."
Sadguru-Stop Looking for Purpose
I couldn't help but think the how true that is when reading the previous post about the trials and tests of Samuel Kitchen as he runs around the planet seeking and fulfilling his perceived God Given Purpose. What a mess he is. The God given purpose can do that to you.
I don't recall much emphasis, if there was any at all, on having a God given purpose growing up in the Dutch Reformed Church. I never heard the phrase and knew no one striving to find it or fulfill it in that context. We just lived our lives and found meaning wherever it presented itself. That is my recollection. My parents found meaning in volunteering for the Red Cross or the State School where my brother resided. That was enough.
But when I discovered The Worldwide Church of God at 14 in a world of assassinations, racial upheaval and war in the Middle East, I became convinced my purpose was to respond to being chosen and have a good explanation as to the oft asked question once in the church, but yet unknown, "So, how did you come into the truth?"
Not only that, my God given purpose was to become a Pastor. That was my personal goal when I went to AC. However, the first student assembly there, GTA warned us all that if anyone came here "to be a minister", to get that out of your head. What!? I thought this was a seminary? (I was naive about the WCG and AC as well as the Armstrongs). I recall my thought being, "We'll see about that", but kept and pondered these things in my heart. It was kinda like being told in advanced public speaking class by the instructor/minister "No one get's an "A" in my class". Uh huh...we'll see. He was mistaken.
From then on, it was game on. My purpose was to become a King or a Priest in the Wonderful World Tomorrow. To rule over 10 cities, or 5 or just 1 if I was a lazy ass or had less than stellar enthusiasm for my God given purpose. Personally, I never cared for the idea of ruling cities. I would have more hoped for a nice log home, along a lake in the Adirondacks and basically being left alone with a few good friends in the surrounding Wonderful World Tomorrow community.
My perception of being a Priest or King was that those positions, back in Biblical and Medieval times were probably considered the premier positions as opposed to the peasant population, so that seemed like great positions to aspire to in that miserable and mundane setting the average person had to endure just to get by.
My God given purpose was also to attend the FOT with 3 services a day. Morning, afternoon and evening, at least at first, until exhaustion and illness caught up with way too many, marriages were getting a bit frayed, and the kids were beginning already to hate church. I recall thinking at 18 when I attended my first FOT at Squaw Valley, these folk are a bit too driven, but I really think it was just a way to give every hot shot HQ minister some sermon time, at the expense of everyone's attitudes, to serve not God, but ego. But that's just me.
It hadn't yet dawned on me that "Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven," (Matthew 5:19) could be taken to mean "no worries, at least I made it" :)
So for the next 30 years, I invested in my God given purpose. To preach the good news of the Kingdom of God both to inspire and motivate. Then of course, the Deity and Jesus must have gotten bored with that purpose and changed it, working a "miracle in the Church".
Now we had a different God given purpose, and I personally had better get onboard and preach it or else. The new God given purpose was to magnify his Son, honor him through new, but not new of course, Holy Days of Christmas and Easter and eschew all things in the previous God given purpose. Of course, this was all done on purpose.
I was no longer interested in the concept of the God given purpose and I thank God that I never hoped over to those insisting on the old God given purpose or those all emotionally attaching to new one, which, of course, was not new at all. It was just new to them. For me it was the reinvention of the wheel. Not interested.
From all of this, my personal conclusion in the whole matter was that the Deity and Jesus are tricksters who would have known that when I sought my original, because I was chosen, had "come into the truth" and now had my God given purpose, but it really wasn't that at all and decades on the ruse would be revealed. Being suspicious of the new God given purpose and having already experienced that the first quarter of my life, I don't find a need any more to have such lofty goals or purpose.
The obsessions and compulsive behaviors one can come up with to fulfill their God given purpose are myriad and not a bit frightening. They can tear your family apart and leave you not a bit broke if one attaches oneself to, say, a Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack or others not only obsessed with their own purpose but in need of being in charge of inflicting it upon others at great cost.
The world, indeed, is full of examples of the perils and dangers in having one's own God given purpose which conflict with the God given purposes of others.
So I agree with...
" People who think they have a God given purpose are doing the cruelest things on the planet. They are doing the most horrible things. And they have always been doing the most horrible things. Because when you are given a God given purpose, life here becomes less important than your purpose."
Poor Samuel Kitchen is a really good example of a really bad view of himself and the folly of "The God Given Purpose".
"If you have balance, then you can climb. If you don't have balance, then it is better you stay on the ground. It's not safe for somebody who is not balanced to climb high. It is best you stay close to the ground. Then you should not climb"
"If you are looking for a purpose, you are seeking madness. If you find one, you are sure mad. If you think you have found a purpose in life, you for sure gone crazy. Because only insane people have purpose. Or people who have purpose are insane in many ways. "
"If you think this is your purpose (to fight for "my country") you will destroy the whole world for the nonsense you believe in"
"The purpose in life is to live"
