Benchmark life

Author: (American) Wallace Wattles
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The purpose of life is not something you start. Your life's purpose is far more than personal achievement, inner peace, or even your happiness and joy. It's not just about family, career, or even your "crazy" dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were born into this world, you must start exploring from God. You were born according to His will and for His purpose. The pursuit of life's purpose has become a timeless mystery for humanity because we usually start from the wrong place—in ourselves. We always ask questions around ourselves. For example: Who do I want to become? How should I use my life? What are my goals, ambitions, and dreams? However, if we focus on ourselves, we can never truly find our life's purpose. The Bible says, "The life of the flesh is in the blood; the breath of man is in His hand." Many popular books, movies, and lectures teach you that you can find the meaning of life through self-reflection, but that's not the truth. The methods they offer, you may have already tried. Yet, since you are not your own creator, you can never tell yourself what your purpose is! If I give you a new invention you've never seen before, you probably won't know its purpose. Even the invention itself can't tell you! Only its inventor or the person who wrote the product manual knows its purpose. I once got lost in the mountains and stopped to ask for directions. I asked which way to go to reach the campsite, but the answer I received was, "You can't get there from here. You must go around the other side of the mountain!" The same principle applies. If our eyes only see ourselves, we will never be able to find our life's purpose. You must start with the God who created you. You exist because His will is for you to exist. You were created by God and for God—unless you understand this, you will never find the meaning of life. We can only find our roots, identity, meaning, purpose, value, and destiny in God. All other paths are futile. Many people try to use God to achieve their own goals, but this is putting the cart before the horse and will inevitably fail. You were created for God, but God was not created for you. God created you to use you to fulfill His purposes, not to use Him to achieve your own goals. The Bible says, "He who trusts in himself is a fool, but in the Lord is full of strength." I have read many books that teach people how to find their life's purpose. These books can be categorized as "self-help" literature because they all explore this topic from the perspective of self. These self-help books, even Christian ones, usually teach you to follow similar steps to find your life's purpose, including examining your dreams, clarifying your values, setting goals, and identifying your strengths; set high goals and pursue them with all your might! Be disciplined, believe in your ability to achieve your goals, learn to ask for help, and never give up. Indeed, these suggestions often lead to great achievements. If you focus intently on following them, achieving your goals is not difficult. But achieving success and achieving your life's purpose are not the same thing! You may achieve the goals you set for yourself, and by the world's standards, you may be considered an outstanding success. Yet, you may still fail to fulfill the purpose for which God created you. Self-help advice cannot fully help you. The Bible says, "No one can save himself. To abandon yourself is the only way, and my way, to find yourself, your true self." This is not a self-help book. It won't teach you how to choose the right career, achieve your dreams, or plan your life. It won't teach you how to cram more activities into a tightly packed schedule. Instead, it will teach you how to make cuts—by focusing on what is truly important. This book will discuss how to fulfill the purpose for which God created you. So, how can you know why God created you? You can know it in two ways: speculation; this is the method chosen by many. They guess and reason, then build a theory. When someone says, "I have always believed life is," they mean, "This is the speculation I consider reasonable." Throughout history, many great philosophers have speculated and reasoned about the meaning of life. Philosophy is an important subject with its own uses, but when it comes to determining the meaning of life, even the wisest philosophers can only speculate. Dr. Hugh Moorhead, a philosophy professor at Northeastern Illinois University in the northeastern part of Illinois, once wrote to famous philosophers, scientists, writers, and scholars around the world, asking them, "What is the meaning of life?" He later compiled all the responses into a book. Some people offered what they considered reasonable speculation; others admitted it was their own invention; still others frankly admitted they had no idea. In fact, many famous scholars even asked Dr. Moorhead if he had already found the meaning of life and if he could write to them! P3-5