“It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives.” St. John Paul II
I have always been a people pleaser. Years ago, I did a personality test and the result was that I am a peacemaker. This makes sense. In order to avoid conflict, I please everyone. The problem with this is that while I may be pleasing others, I am leaving myself out. Many times I have sacrificed my own goals in order to help others fulfill theirs.
One of the things I’m realizing during this 3-month sabbatical that I’m taking from social media is that I have not always been true to myself. God created me for a purpose. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds me: “Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.” If I’m necessary to God, He must have a mission for me. If I am always focused on pleasing others, I will never discover what God’s true purpose for me is. I am on a journey to discover what God wants from me at this moment in time. If I get distracted with constantly doing what other people want, instead of what God wants, I lose focus and therefore I lose sight of my own mission.
Our purpose can change over time as our life evolves. When I was in school, my purpose was to study so I could graduate. Then my purpose became to get married and have a family. My children and husband then became my primary purpose. But now, my children are all grown up and living their life. My husband is still by my side, but he’s not my sole focus. I love him and I want to spend the rest of my life with him, but I know that he’s not my main purpose. I can feel deep inside that God has a bigger mission for me.
I am turning 60 in a few days, and I have been asking myself, “what is my true purpose?” I know I only have a limited amount of time left here on earth so I want to make the most of my remaining years. I would like to leave my mark somehow, and leave my little corner of the world better than I found it. But in order to do so, I have to unite my goals to God’s plans for me. I hope that with the help of the Holy Spirit, I can respond to God with the confidence that what He desires for me is what my true purpose should be.
I hope that by taking this time off from all the social media distractions, I discover my true purpose. I know I’m not going to find it sitting around doing nothing. But hopefully, spending this time journaling and reading spiritual meditations, will allow me to reconnect with my inner self, and it will help me to see more clearly where God is leading me.
I will probably continue pleasing others because it is who I am, but I am going to concentrate now in pleasing the One that really matters, and that is God. I know that if I align my goals with His plans for me, I will find my true purpose, and my mission will flourish without me getting exhausted or discouraged during the journey. And in the process, I hope I learn to always be true to myself.
Copyright © 2022 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.
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