What is living life on purpose?

I was thinking today, wondering how to describe what I mean by "living life on purpose". I thought of what it meant to not live life on purpose by what happened this afternoon. I'd been driving for awhile and realized I'd gone quite a distance without realizing it. (Everyone, with the possible exception of brand new drivers, find themselves doing this. You turn in the driveway of your home and wondered where you were the last ten minutes.) Apart from an alien abduction scenario, I had spaced out by driving familiar roads without thinking about them.

That's what happens when you do not live life on purpose. I've seen it with friends already. They are reaching ages forty, fifty, sixty and older and they wonder what happened to their life. It all went by so fast (and believe me, it does). They remember turning twenty or thirty and then they find themselves twenty years later, wondering where the time went. I can assure you that happens with raising children. It really does seem like just a few years ago we were a family with a toddler and a teenager.

So...what does it mean to live live life on purpose? For those of us in the Judeo-Christian persuasion, I believe that means finding what God intends for our life and living that by the decisions and choices we make in our life. For those who are not of a particular faith, it at least means finding your gifts, talents, that which you are passionate about and following that road.

I'll chat more about those ponderings...tomorrow...God willing and the creek don't rise. With all the rain we've had this Winter, that is a very real possibility.

Picture: Girl in Thought