The Importance of People In The Pursuit of Purpose [Part 1]

The Importance of Health and Vitality In Pursuit of Purpose
September 8, 2017
The Importance of People In The Pursuit of Purpose [Part 2]
September 10, 2017

The Importance of People In The Pursuit of Purpose [Part 1]

A

t times, you can download a massively huge purpose or vision for your life. At those moments it might seem so daunting that you can easily give up and abort the purposes of God for your life. Please note one main thing here: [ictt-tweet-inline]You are not the only activator of the purpose and vision for your life.[/ictt-tweet-inline] Yes you are the agitator, the percolator, the one who is pregnant with it, but you cannot do it alone. If you can, then please go dream again, it is not a massive vision.

Scared because of Isolation

Now, the “purpose” and vision could vary from time to time…and as you keep downloading and finishing these assignments from God, you grow stronger and better. For example, a few years ago, I considered it a daunting task to set up a self hosted blog. Today, I can set up very many others by all by myself, and pay all the costs needed for them. I have grown in that area. I have also narrated of how about a decade ago as a teenager; I had downloaded from God the vision of publishing a magazine.

Up until that time, nothing had been as daunting as this vision in my life. Unfortunately, I secluded myself from people and promptly aborted the vision. Few months down the line, I saw a cheap imitation of “My vision” on the streets of Nairobi with the self same Title that I had wanted to run with! To that front, I have not really recovered, but one day I will have a magazine published.

How Crucial People Are

God works through us in generations by giving us ideas day in and out. Our faithfulness in deploying these ideas not only determines our growth, but also our gravitation towards our God given purpose. So here is the shortcut if there is something of that nature towards your God given purpose: Put in action the ideas that God gives you daily.

That is where the rubber meets the road, because to be honest, God gives us massive ideas that we cannot pull off single handedly. I am reminded how God Himself needs people daily! Adam needed Eve. Moses needed Aaron…and Pharaoh too. Joseph needed his brothers (insert cynical laughter here), the slave traders, Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife (laugh some more), the jailer, and Pharaoh’s cup bearer. The rest is history.

David needed his brothers (more laughter), Prophet Samuel, King Saul (Lord have mercy), and a band of people who were in debt, distressed and discontent. Jesus needed his disciples, the Pharisees and Sad you sees (ahem), and Judas.

The Different Types of People

Look, I know I have taken a one sided spiritual angle at this post, but whatever way you want to extrapolate this topic, we need people in order to fulfill our God given assignment. Where would Steve Jobs be without Steve Wozniak? Where would “Woz” be without Jobs? And where would the two be without Mark Markula? Where would Bill Gates be without Paul Allen? Where would Obama be without Michelle? Where would Martin Luther King Jnr be without his friends? Where would JFK be without his domineering father? The scale is now balanced, let’s move on.

For what purpose do we need people in our pursuit of our God given purpose? You will know that the greatest secret in God’s genius creation is making everything to operate in parts. Nothing is sufficient of itself in creation apart from God Himself..and even Himself in His all self sufficiency, chose to depend on humans for certain aspects of His overall vision. The point is clear. No one is an island, no one can do it alone. A husband needs a wife. A wife needs her husband. And the genius of God is that it is in the “needs” we have of each other that when met, they fulfill a pre-destined purpose. That is why the idea of gay marriage is absurd, but I digress…

There are specific groups of people that you need in your life. Each comes to your life to do something specific and vice versa. This means that as you pursue your vision, chances are that you will add value to others and others (different from those you added value to) will add value to you. TD Jakes says that people come to your life either for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. All the same, people are the biggest resource we have in the pursuit of our God given purpose. Some people are brought into life by Divine assignment. They come doing their own thing, not knowing that their own thing is connecting you to your assignment.

1. Haters

These are the most important people you will ever meet. I had haters in primary school as I sat for my final exam. They segregated me and victimized me. They made me retreat to the solace of books and when the results came out, I had topped the class. The person I am today professionally (specifically working in a foreign country) can be directly traced to a hater. If they had not hated on me, I would not have been pushed to release my skill, power and potential and rise to the top as cream in a basin. Looking back, I feel like Kirk Franklin was right when he said, “I wanna write you a letter all those who hated on me and just say ‘thank you’”. Haters always think that they will bury you, but their grammar is pathetic. They do not know the difference between burying and planting!

Characteristics of Haters

One distinguishing factors about haters and critics is that they are as hollow as a tomb. They look good at the outside but in their own lives they are a rotten mess. In fact, for the most part the haters do not have anything of their own that they are pursuing. Is it any wonder that they have time to hate on you? Come to think about it. If you are so consumed with your vision and purpose and passion, do you really have time, strength and emotions to waste on hating others and analyzing what others think about you? I guess not. David’s hater was King Saul. Oh how he helped that boy grow!

What to Do with Haters

So what do we do with our haters? Realize that they are confirming that there is something about you. You don’t throw stones to a tree unless it has fruit, do you? Secondly, do not waste your time trying to explain yourself and justify yourself to a hater. Their biggest joy is to bring you down to their level of purposelessness and apathy. Thirdly, do not try to fight a hater, unless they become too much. The greatest medicine you can give to a hater is to ignore them and channel that energy to your purpose. That is a meal best served to them.

We shall continue with this in the next post.