Passion or Purpose

My brilliant and beautiful 17-year-old granddaughter raised an interesting question about life the other day. She wrote her thoughts in an essay for school. The subject is about passion versus purpose. With her permission I am including parts of her essay in this blog post.

“Is my passion my purpose? The textbook definition of passion is ‘simply a strong and barely controllable emotion,’ and the definition of purpose is ‘the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists’.

“So many times, people get wrapped up in trying to force their passion to be their purpose that they often lose the passion entirely.

“You’re passionate about soccer, so you practice every day, and you train every day, and you condition every day, and eventually you step back and wonder: Do I even like soccer? You can forget why you started, and passions, as extreme as they can be, can still flicker out.

“The trouble is, if our passions are always shifting, then how can we ever find our purpose? It just depends on how you measure it.

“I have a younger brother, and I used to wonder why I was the oldest. For a while I thought my purpose as an older sister was to drive him around, help him with projects, and make sure he doesn’t get into trouble. After my mom passed though I realized why I was put in his life. I no longer believed that I was in his life just to drive him around and watch his games. I believed I was in his life to be the one listening ear who understood everything. The one person he could always relate to. My purpose was to bring him the joy he needed in a dark time and get him back on his feet. Now my purpose in his life didn’t change, instead it was just finally revealed.

“Your purpose cannot be measured by looking at your own life. It can be seen though if you look at the lives of others. We cannot predict our future, so we can never know what our final purpose is, but we can track it along the way. We can think about it in reverse as well. Who in your life has made a significant impact? What is their purpose in your story? Maybe it is a parent who was always hard working, and they pushed you to chase your dreams. Their purpose was to be what encouraged you to chase a goal. Maybe it is a friend who was always generous to others, and they rarely spoke bad things. Their purpose was to show you true empathy, and it inspired you to also strive for kindness.

“So, does our passion define our purpose? I don’t believe that, because our passions are fluid, and our real purpose cannot be found in just one of our passions. Our purpose is determined by the roles we play in the lives of others, in our daily connections and even the impactful moments we can never understand.”

What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9)