Are you sure?
This bookmark will be removed from all folders and any saved notes will be permanently removed.
How can I find a feeling of purpose?
Originally appeared online in the teen series: Q&A - April 22, 2020
Q: How can I find a feeling of purpose when nothing’s going on?
A: I understand the way you’re feeling. Once, I was visiting family on a farm in South Africa—far away from home. It was beautiful there, but I started to feel adrift after a couple weeks, because I just wasn’t sure what else to do besides walk around the farm. I tried helping out with some of the day-to-day work, but it was clear I wasn’t really needed. I wanted to feel valuable and purposeful, but I just wasn’t getting that.
One thing I was able to do during this time was a project I’d created for myself, which involved reading through all of Mary Baker Eddy’s published writings other than Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. As I read, I came across this passage: “As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 165). This really struck me, because I saw that the capacity to be of service—to be and do good—wasn’t tied to any outward circumstances. Instead, good is the core of what each of us really is as God’s image and likeness.
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
JSH Collections
This article is included in:
2021 - DIGITAL COLLECTION
A Collection for Teens - July–December 2020
JSH-Online has hundreds of pamphlets, anthologies, and special editions for you to discover.
July 6, 2020 issue
View Issue-
From the readers
Belinda Joines, Dorothy Zellers, Barbara Fay Wiese
-
Depth and healing
Barbara Vining
Articles
-
Overcoming fear of the unknown
Chet Manchester
-
The harbinger of light
George Moffett
-
Can our prayer reduce racial tension?
Martine Blackler
-
Embrace the divine economy, see needs met
Mark Raffles
Teens
-
How can I find a feeling of purpose?
John Biggs
Testimonies of healing
-
Family freed from contagion
Sharon Morash Brooks
-
Freedom of movement restored
Wendy Paulson
-
Thankful for two healings
Elizabeth Jensen
Poem
-
“The only worthy evidence” *
Lindsey A. Roder