Purpose

Purpose

All life forms, from 1-celled organisms to humans, have a 2-fold purpose, to survive and reproduce. Some life forms seem to have a higher purpose. For ex., dogs seem to work in a variety of ways. Covid dogs, service dogs, shepherding dogs, etc. Dolphins have trained fishermen/people to throw their nets where and when the dolphins want that gives the fishermen fish but also stuns or herds the fish making them easy catches for the dolphins. See https://youtu.be/lRwWfYLKFw0. But their purposes of working, is all about their survival. Even the dolphins are just using people to make feeding easier for them.

People have higher purposes than all other life forms. Yes. We have a need to survive and reproduce (even if circumstances prevent children). Each of us has a purpose to fulfill. When we don’t live up to our purpose or don’t know what our purpose is, we often feel despair or even go into a deep depression. Renewing or finding a purpose can alleviate some of the worst depression symptoms.

When I came down with POTS, I went through a deep, dark depression. I had no hope for this life. Why? My specialist told me that I could try and speak once a semester to engineering classes, arts and literature classes, or internet classes on the availability and need to file for patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Once a semester. Those words hit me hard. I had work so hard to get my law degree. And I had to walk away, but not really walk away as it was my body was pulling the rug out from under me—giving me no choice. Once a semester. Is that all I could do?

I assumed my life was over because I was so limited in what I could do. I began considering myself just a drain on society, being able to offer so little — again, once a semester echoing in my head. I didn’t think I had anything to give or any more to offer.

Through lots of private counseling and group counseling and through God’s answered prayers of healing (not physically—a healing message and different ways we are healed will be in the future), I was shown that I could have a new life. It would be different than any of my life experiences before. I would have to be okay with having a “new normal,” which meant doing so much less (again echoes of once a semester in my head).

What is a new normal? It means that everything is different than it was and you can never go back to what you had, no matter how much you want to go back. It means learning to accept a new way of living. It’s so hard to face and be okay with the changes. Most are for the worse. Some may be for the better. But it doesn’t matter what was. It means looking at today and tomorrow and what you have the ability to do and making the best of today without comparing it to the past. The new normal can be a great life, just different than what you had hoped.

But the new normal meant I could still have hope in this world and make the most of the little I can do. Over time and learning gradually what triggered worse days, things began happening for me instead of just to me. God reminded me that in Romans 8:24, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. God has a purpose for each of us. And it might seem impossible or improbable, but God helps us fulfill His purpose because in Mark 10:27, He tells us that nothing is impossible with God.

Through the deep depression, what I learned is that when we have no purpose, we are in a very dark place. We start to believe we have nothing to offer anyone. We believe the worse lies about ourselves which just makes the depression worse. We need to find our higher purpose in this world. Sometimes it is so hard to find it or fulfill it as we’re blinded by life’s current circumstances that we just give up. Sometimes we need to surrender to God and find out His purpose for us. Regardless, it is hard and takes time to develop.