A book I read in college put me on what has now been a lifelong quest to clearly define for myself my life purpose. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve written and rewritten it coupled with multiple versions and modifications. That’s because it has become more specific, on one hand, and more reflective of a deeper desire on the other.
My latest version is perhaps the simplest so far: I desire to be a true friend to Jesus and adventure with him in the joy of blessing others.
Here’s something to notice, however. If I am to pursue that purpose then any alternative motive for doing anything must be sacrificed. There has to be a “shedding of blood” as it were, which, it seems to me, is a sign of repentance. In other words, when we read in Hebrews 9:22 that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” I think one way of understanding that is that without repentance there is no forgiveness.
If that idea holds, true repentance then means sacrifice. In the act of changing one’s mind — which is what the word repentance means — a person slaughters the ulterior motive they entertained that resulted straying from what they believed God is calling them to be.
This is why to stay on track, sacrifice was and is inevitable and necessary. We simply cannot stay committed to a desired outcome if we do not constantly dispense with — that is, sacrifice — any motivation that sabotages the outcome.
