I vividly remember the winter holiday of 2009. I was a final year student doing Accounting and my connect group leader recommended that I do a leadership course at the African Leadership Institute here in Namibia. I was very excited and driven to do the course after I received a call that I got accepted. Between the phone call and classes starting, I got mugged and lost my phone. I had no way of communicating with the institute and vice versa. We were instructed in the initial call that there will be a bus coming to get us on a certain date but I had no knowledge of where and when because this information was communicated during a follow-up call. On the day we were supposed to leave, I packed and got a taxi to the institute, which was about 70 km from Windhoek. Everyone was shocked and impressed that I had made it out there on my own and as I narrated to them the events leading up to me hustling for transport, I realized that there must be something amazing for me there and I was right. On the second last date of our course, we received a book called The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. It was at the African Leadership Institute that I first learnt about purpose. In 2009 my statement on purpose was “to disciple and impact young people in Africa”.
Ever since then, I have consciously been learning to understand what I was made for. I’ve come to truly know that my purpose is found in God because He created me and that my gifts, calling, function and responsibilities are to impact the earth for the sake of the kingdom. I served as a campus minister for 4 years and I was exposed to students from different countries. I did local missions and a course in campus ministry to grow in my purpose before moving on to pastoral ministry for another 4 years. In the quest to understand my purpose more, I did a course in counselling which helped me understand how people think and how their behavior impacts their surroundings. My ultimate goal was to study Anthropology for obvious reasons.
After I left the full-time ministry in 2018, I felt hopeful to explore new things with God, and focus on raising my kids and running a small business but my heart had a lingering question: what was I doing with my life? I spent most of my time at home which was a contrast to my busy life in ministry. For the first few months, I felt useless and purposeless because I was not doing what I was used to. Instead of meeting people for coffee, I was caught up in laundry and washing dishes. I knew with confidence God was redirecting me but I felt a sense of loss and in an attempt to feel useful, I started applying for jobs so I can be in an environment where I was impacting and discipling people. I forced coffees and conversations just to feel some form of normalcy. All my attempts fell short and I had to be quiet day after day in God’s presence to listen to Him redefine purpose for me. I understood that my purpose was from function and when what I had defined as “function” for my purpose was removed, I panicked.
Purpose is the reason for our existence. A function is a very crucial element of our existence but it is not the primary reason for our existence. We hear people say “I was put on this earth to do this or that”. Many believers will tell you that the primary existence of humanity is to worship God, to do something for/with God. While this is true to a certain extent, the bible doesn’t say this explicitly. We should worship God yes but the core of our purpose is found in God’s original intent for humanity. In Ephesians 1:4-5 GNT it says “Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children—this was his pleasure and purpose.”
In fact, the whole of Ephesians 1 speaks of God’s plan. Jesus’ purpose was not abstract, He was born and He died because it was the Father’s purpose. In John 3:34 Jesus explains this reality “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.” Jesus continually had to speak about who He was, whose He was and why He was on earth.
Our purpose then is weaved into the fabric of God’s marvelous plan. Our existence was birthed from love and it gave us an opportunity to become children of God who exist not just for the earth but who also exist for heavenly purposes in accordance with God’s plan. The Father’s plan was that we would have dual citizenship (alive on earth and seated with Christ ruling in the heavenly realms), not only created in His image but also born of His own will through the Word (James 1:18 & 1 Peter 1:23). God’s plan was already in motion even before the earth existed and even before sin came into the world. It was not bound by space or time.
Looking back at the events that shaped my understanding of purpose, the above reality and truth has changed my perspective and have given me a newfound appreciation for my existence. Praise be to God for a fulfilling purpose-driven life here on earth and beyond.
May you live out your purpose and not just function in it,
Annete Ndjadila