Want to make a real difference in this life, in the world? Want to know a purpose and a reason for your being? It’s so simple, it’s extraordinarily so! The ultimate way to make a difference and to change the world is to live in it as a force of love, compassion and as a blessing to others. Do good. Let your heart overflow even in spite of personal pain, loss, sorrow, longing, want and need. Take whatever has happened to you and turn it into a means by which you are able to not only recognize the pain and suffering in others; but to minister to them because of it! If you have been a victim, don’t relish that role to the point that it solely about you; but take it as a way of helping others through their similar fates. If you have suffered loss and grieved internally, endeavor to find those who are similarly conflicted!  

Our real purpose here isn’t probably going to be some big deal we’ve managed to artfully negotiate at our jobs or a status to which we successfully ascend. Our purpose is to use who we are in total, what we have endured and whatever it is we’ve learned to help heal, to care and attend to others in need, with love. The world at present is a full-blown example that we haven’t successfully grown beyond ourselves to this point. There are people doing good, loving others, giving and caring; but not to the point where we all feel compelled to do that in the long run. Selfishness is our desire to always first be the victim, to always feel our need as a priority and to always take care of ourselves. Only when we truly learn to reach outside that small perimeter of understanding will we fully learn the lessons of why we were created and so purposefully placed here among so many others with different mindsets, beliefs and situations.  

Developing a heart full of love is our purpose, finding others with whom we can share our heart is our aim. Love is the directive which compels us in that pursuit. As it states so perfectly in the Gospel of Matthew 22: 37 – 39, 37 Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  Growing up into adulthood is the soul’s learning how to put others and their needs above our own; and love is the will within us to do exactly that! God’s love lighting us up is what brings the rest of the world hope.