In Pursuit of Purpose
by Dr. Myles Munroe
I came across this book in hard copy about three months ago but never had the time to read it not until yesterday. Reason why I chose to read this book is because of the teachings and emphasize on purpose.
Every thing that exist on earth exist for a purpose no matter how big or small that thing is. The life of a thing will feels empty and incomplete when there is no sense of meaning behind it. Most times I asked myself, why I'm I here, why I'm I existing, what is my purpose of existence?. I see it necessary to ask these questions because I believe every person is created for a reason, and until that reason is discovered, life can feel like wandering in circles.
Purpose is not something humans invent for themselves, but rather something that is already placed within them by the Creator just like a charger or adaptor that is designed by the manufacturer to charge our phones. The challenge is to find the purpose for our existence, understand it, and live it out.
I read through some pages of the book and one principle really caught my attention the most. I often hear it from my mentor most times when he is teaching but never read it physically now I've seen it from the book directly. It says and I quote where the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. That's to say when people do not understand the reason behind the existence of something, they are bound to misuse it. When there is no clear understanding of why something exists, there is tendency that it will be handled anyhow. If a person does not know why he/she is alive, there is tendency that they may waste their time and misuse their talents in the process of trying to find meaning.
I relate to this principle on personal experience. There were moment in my life when I felt very unsure about my direction. In those moments, I wasted time on things that really don't matter, things that had no value, trying to fit into circles of people that didn’t align with my true self. Later did I realized that I was abusing my time and potential by living according to what others expected of me, rather than discovering what I was truly meant to do. The lack of that clarity about my purpose made me vulnerable to distractions. So until purpose is discovered, life will always feel meaningless.
There are other couple of principles that I find interesting in the book. Like the principle where it states that purpose is original intent. Purpose is the main reason behind why something was made in the first place. Just as a chair was created for sitting or a car was created for transportation, or our phones which is designed for making calls and doing other stuff. Same also applicable to a person. Everyone has a specific design and reason for existing and for anyone to discover that purpose, they needs to revisit whosoever they believe created them and know the original intention for why they were created.
I think the major center of this book is that every person is valuable because of their purpose. No matter the age, status or circumstances. No life is useless, no person is an accident, and no one should feel inferior because they do not measure up to world standards. The fact that the creator designed each individual for something unique is enough proof of value.
So the book has a lot of inspiring message that I think will serve as a guideline for anyone who is trying to discover himself, his purpose and reasons existence.