The human sense of purpose is a powerful one. And the need to know and be in that purpose is one of the deepest longings of the human heart. Whether prompted by success or despair, by a gaze at the night sky or a conversation with a friend, the question that has anguished all men through all time has become ours as well. What is the purpose of my existence? It is something every heart is seeking. If not answered, none can rest.
A Poet's Query
Although there is an intensely personal aspect to the question, we have the sense that it addresses much more than just our own individual destiny. Famed Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) had a similar realization and set the question this way: "Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?"1 But perhaps David, the ancient Jewish king and poet, best framed the question in its universal relevance when he addressed it to God:
When I see Your heavens, the works of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is mortal man, that You remember him,
And the son of man, that You visit him?2
David's son and successor to the throne, Solomon, received valuable insight regarding his father's question. Although he could not answer it, he elegantly identified its source: "God," he wrote in the poem Ecclesiastes, "has placed eternity in men's hearts."3 Understanding eternity to be "a divinely implanted sense of a purpose,"4 Solomon's statement sheds much light on this mysterious purpose which we are seeking: a God who implants a sense of purpose within man must Himself be a God of purpose. In other words, Solomon's discovery implies what we have always sensed to be true but may not have had words to express: God has an eternal purpose.
The Eternal Purpose of God
In eternity past God had a good pleasure, a heart's desire.5 Even before we existed, He longed to join Himself to us, to fill us with Himself, and through us, express all that He is and has. The satisfaction of this desire became the goal of His eternal purpose. Until the desire of God's heart is satisfied, there remains within Him an unabated yearning for satisfaction. Indeed, His heart is restless until it comes to repose in the fulfillment of His purpose—the expression of Himself through humanity.
Similarity
What the restlessness in God's heart moved Him to do is almost beyond our power to fathom: God created man as the unique one with whom He would fulfill His purpose.6 God made us in His image and according to His likeness,7 similar to Him in every respect. For example, God is love, which is why we have a virtue called love; God is perfect, so we have an aspiration for perfection; God is just, so we have a sense of right and justice. In fact, every one of our positive attributes is a reflection of who and what God is.
But the similarity does not stop there. Perhaps our chief similarity to God is His very own sense of purpose which He duplicated in us at the time of our creation. Because He needs us for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, He created in us a matching need for satisfaction which can only be met when His purpose is accomplished. Thus, by virtue of our creation by God, we cannot be satisfied until He fulfills His purpose. Is it any wonder that despite our accomplishments, education, entertainment, pleasure, and even religion, we are left empty and seeking? These things do not fulfill God's purpose, hence neither can they satisfy us. By replicating in man His own sense of purpose and need for satisfaction, God took a momentous step in fulfilling His eternal purpose.
The Process
This longing in God's heart not only moved Him to create us. It also urged Him to go through a process so that He could enter into us and make us His expression. He, the infinite God, humbled Himself to become a finite human being named Jesus Christ. In this man, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt,8 and through Him, all the fullness of the Godhead was expressed. Everything He did, said, and thought was a pure expression of God in humanity. This brought the highest delight to God, for in Jesus Christ, His eternal purpose began to be fulfilled in that a man was fully expressing God. Then the Lord Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified on a wooden cross in order that through death, the God-expressing life that resided within Him could be released and made available to us. He then resurrected from the dead to become the life-giving Spirit.9 As the life-giving Spirit, God is able to dispense everything that He is and has into us so that we can become exactly what He is—the expression of God in humanity.10
Through this process, Christ opened the way for us to receive His divine life that we might become the reproduction of Christ, bringing delight to God's heart by fulfilling His purpose.
The Seekers
Today, not only are we seekers; God Himself is a seeker. By two momentous acts—His creation of man and His process to become the life-giving Spirit—we can see how great is His yearning to fulfill His eternal purpose. Until He fulfills His eternal purpose in a group of people who fully express Him by being filled with Him, He will remain unsatisfied. And until we receive Him and become a participant in His purpose, we will have a lingering sense of vanity.
So the question is no longer What? It has now become How? How can we participate in the eternal purpose of God? It is not difficult. In fact, it is what we were created for. We are so similar to God, and He is now so available to us as the life-giving Spirit, that receiving Him is very simple. All we must do is ask Him to come into us to fill us and to express all that He is and has through us. This is what brings satisfaction to His heart. This is what satisfies our seeking for purpose. This is the way to commence our participation in the eternal purpose of God. 
1 Leo Tolstoy, A Confession. From Stanley R. Hopper (introduction), Lift up Your Eyes: The Religious writings of Leo Tolstoy (The Jullian Press, 1960), p. 54 (back) 2 Psalm 8:3-4 (back) 3 Ecclesiates 3:11 (back) 4 Ecclesiastes 3:11 (The Amplified Bible, Zondervan Publishing House, 1965) (back) 5 Ephesians 1:9 (back) 6 Revelation 4:11; Genesis 1:26 (back) 7 Genesis 1:26a (back) 8 Colossians 2:9 (back) 9 1 Corinthians 15:45 (back) 10 1 Corinthians 15:45; John 1:16; Ephesians 3:19b (back)
photo courtesy Philip Greenspun
To satisfy the desire of God's heart and enter the purpose of human existence, please pray this prayer:
O Lord Jesus, my life of seeking has left me empty. I am purposeless without You. Lord Jesus, cleanse me of my sins and come into me. Bring me into Your purpose for the satisfaction of Your heart. O Lord Jesus, I give myself to You for Your eternal purpose.
