Purpose Of Life Vs. Your Purpose In Life

[Duncan]

I accept that there is a purpose in life, receive a body, be tested but I am wondering if there is a specific purpose to your life. I say the specific purpose bit like God saying in the premortal life okay you I want you to do this thing, like Beethoven with music or Gordon B. Hinckley with Temples, Jonas Salk with polio research. Are there specific roles everyone everywhere has to or is somehow encouraged to play in mortality? Some people you wonder what there role is when they have done bad things like serial murderers and political tyrants who have caused untold misery on mankind.

[CV75]

Are there specific roles everyone everywhere has to or is somehow encouraged to play in mortality?

I think there may well be, but they may be relatively mundane and unrecognized except when the Spirit tells them they are on the right track with something.

[bu11fr0g]

What does it mean when someone's calling is taken away and given to another?

Calling, birthright, position, gift, talent, ...

[blackstrap]

From listening to the people who have experienced an NDE,many say they had to return because they still had things to LEARN.Some say they still had things to DO. Some say they had a choice,stay or return and they chose to return.

I have a bit of a problem with God saying to Claudius Picus

" Go thou and be the 12th soldier from the left in the seventh row of the third Legion of Rome.Do thy duty and thou wilt be blessed with a quick death"

[Garden Girl]

My purpose in life... now... is to endure to the end.

Seriously, I don't know that I had any outstanding purpose that impacted great numbers of people, per se... my patriarchal blessing gave me a very straightforward "purpose." In fact the words were: You have a great mission... it is:... and then listed my mission. It wasn't earthshaking like curing polio, etc, etc., but it did and does affect others.

I do know that I wasted a lot of years during my inactivity in the Church... but when I reactivated I prayed that my blessing would be returned to me... and it was... I can see it in my life these past 17 years since I came back... So I've been able to realize my purpose to an extent, and I'm thankful for that.

GG

[mfbukowski]

We all have different personalities and talents and it is up to us to find or create our purpose.

I think that thinking about such things and deciding what we are going to do in our lives closely parallels the subjective religious experiences we have in kind.

The only way we can know what our purpose is, is to think about it and figure out what we like and are talented at, etc. Some may be plumbers, or for others who do not care about riches, they become scientists and teachers.

What I find interesting is that every single atheist who denies that there is any value in the subjective feelings and knowledge has in fact subjectively chosen his personal course in life to fulfill what he sees as his "purpose". The physicists might have shown an interest in such matters as a child, the paleontologists in dinosaurs, etc and then they chose their "purpose"

Of course our purpose and our vocation may not be the same but every person who suggests to a young person that one should "follow your passion" is in fact telling them to follow their purpose, and the only way you can know what your passion is, is through subjective reflection.

[The Nehor]

I think I'm the jester.

[mfbukowski]

Another thought: for those who devalue the subjective, one might ask them if they ever think at all.

[Carborendum]

That's what a patriarchal blessing is all about. In decades past, most Americans believed each person had a special calling. It was our job to figure out what it was, and persue it with zeal. This was a "vocation" or calling in life. I'll tell this parable you're probably familiar with to illustrate the point.

There was a man that came to see the construction of a temple. He found three brick layers that were quite different in their attitudes and their results. He went to the first brick layer who was doing a poor job and working fairly slowly,"What are you doing?"

"I'm laying bricks."

He went ot the secon man who was doing a passable job and he seemed somewhat content,"What are you doing?"

"I'm making $20/hr."

He went to the third man who was doing a fantastic job and seemed very happy to be there,"What are you doing?"

"I'm building a temple to my God."

The first man had an "occupation". Something that he did to fill up his time and remind himself that he was still alive. The second man had a "profession". It paid him a wage for the work he did. He agreed to a deal, and he would meet his end as long as the boss kept his end. The third man had a "vocation". He felt called to do this great work by God Himself. He would go to great lengths to make sure his work was the best he could offer.

For many, their vocation and their profession are the same. For others, it may be more difficult to discover what their vocation is. But the clues in our patriarchal blessing are to guide us. I didn't realize my patriarchal blessing actually did predict my profession until years later. I just wasn't looking for it in my blessing. But there it was, pretty plain to see. I just hadn't read it in a while.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Carborendum

[Stargazer]

I accept that there is a purpose in life, receive a body, be tested but I am wondering if there is a specific purpose to your life. I say the specific purpose bit like God saying in the premortal life okay you I want you to do this thing, like Beethoven with music or Gordon B. Hinckley with Temples, Jonas Salk with polio research. Are there specific roles everyone everywhere has to or is somehow encouraged to play in mortality? Some people you wonder what there role is when they have done bad things like serial murderers and political tyrants who have caused untold misery on mankind.

I don't know about you, but it appears that I was sent here with a specific purpose, amongst any other general purpose (get a body, have a family, etc). I would not like to get very specific, but there is at least one item in my patriarchal blessing pertaining to my purpose that was fulfilled rather dramatically. At least to me. And I was very carefully led to the Church after having not been born into it.

I know that Father knows everything about what we will be presented with, and knows that some of us are going to blow our chance. Yet we must come anyway, because it hasn't happened until it happens. In a talk by Richard Draper that I have on CD, he stated that the Father knew from the beginning whether you would fail or not, and you're going to do exactly what He saw you do. You won't show up unexpectedly in Heaven and say "Surprise! I succeeded after all!" because He already knows it and it is inescapable. Yet when we get to whatever point we get to, we will look back and see very clearly that He was right, and it was all on our own heads. That's because God's foreknowledge does not cause our fate. This is vaguely depressing to me. But how could God NOT know? And still be God? Like Einstein said, God doesn't play at dice.

Yes, don't tell me that Einstein was talking about Heisenberg, I know that. It also happens to be true, even if Einstein didn't really mean it that way.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Stargazer

[theplains]

I accept that there is a purpose in life, receive a body, be tested but I am wondering if there is a specific purpose to your life.

This sums it up pretty good:

"All good things come from God. Everything that he does is to help his children become like him--a god. He has said, "Behold, this is my

work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39)." (Gospel Principles, 1997).

Any other "specific" purpose falls a distant second I think.

Regards,

Jim