“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” -Mahatma Gandhi

I view the world as sort of a work in progress, a work in which every person who has ever lived has a hand — be it large or small. I also believe that every one of us has a very specific purpose in “completing” this work. A major theme of the Denver Christmas Conference in which I participated last week was discovering that purpose, that reason for our existence. What follows is a series of my observations and ideas gleaned from the conference and, in particular, the speeches of Rev. Bryan Loritts.

To answer the question, “What is my purpose?” simply ask “What’s in my hand?” In other words, what are you doing right now? What activities do you enjoy, or are skilled at? Bryan asserted that we tend to view our purpose as something that we’re going to hate — something that sounds great to us, but only as long as someone else is doing it. (You, for example, might cringe at the thought of community service. My own greatest aversion would be anything that requires public speaking.) But think about it from a different perspective; why do you enjoy the things you do in the first place?

I don’t make any assumptions about the religious beliefs (or lack thereof) of readers. But if you live in the United States, you almost certainly worship at least one god — the god of comfort. The idea of the “American Dream” revolves around achieving a certain level of wealth, happiness, comfort… and then staying there. In America, our societal and spiritual growth is crippled because we refuse to embrace — or even accept — any changes to our precious routines. We’re too busy keeping up with the Joneses to worry about what our true purpose might be.

Revolutionaries are the people who change the world. The first people who come to mind when we think about revolutionaries are those iconic notables like Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Jesus Christ. But you don’t need money, power or fame to become a revolutionary. In his final sermon of the week, Bryan mentioned that the two defining characteristics of any revolutionary are a strong radiance of love and a willingness to sacrifice everything for the greater good. In other words, one needs only a heart of gold and the rest will fall into place. Piece of cake, right?

You are involved in the creation of a masterpiece. Are you doing your part?

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