A Reflection on Purpose, God’s Will, and the Life We Were Created to Live
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
— Proverbs 19:21 (NIV)
“The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.”
— Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life
We all have plans. But plans aren’t necessarily the same thing as purpose.
That’s the heart of our new song, Dead Walk Tread.
The Zombie Walk
In The Pain Paradox, I described something I call the zombie walk—moving through life without any real sense of direction or purpose.
I know what that’s like. I’ve lived it.
Getting up, going to work, coming home, repeating the same routine. No real goal. No greater purpose. Just coasting.
And the troubling thing is that it can look perfectly normal.
As I wrote in The Pain Paradox, when we wander without purpose, we squander our time, resources, and talents on pursuits that offer little in return.
The song opens with these words:
Can’t win a race
You never begin
Life spinning circles
Days wearing thin
And then:
Hours drift away
Like water through your hands
No path going forward
No design, no plan
That’s the zombie walk.
Life keeps moving, whether we’re living intentionally or not. The days pass, the years disappear, and before we know it, we’ve spent an enormous portion of our lives simply going through the motions.
But here’s what troubles me most.
We may be missing the very life God created us to live.
You Can’t Win a Race You Never Begin
Of all the lyrics in this song, one of my favorites is:
“Can’t win a race / You never begin.”
Think about that.
We can have extraordinary gifts, talents, and opportunities. We can dream about what we’d like to accomplish. We can make elaborate plans and promise ourselves that someday things will be different.
But what good are those gifts if we never use them?
What good are those plans if we never act?
And what happens when someday becomes next year, and next year becomes another decade?
I’ve had to confront that question myself.
I can’t do anything about the years I spent stumbling through life without a clear sense of purpose. But I can do something about the years I have left.
And so can you.
The song makes another point I believe is worth remembering:
The hard road waits
Release the power within
PAIN AIN’T PERMISSION
TO NEVER BEGIN
Life is difficult. We get discouraged. We suffer disappointments, setbacks, and sometimes tremendous pain.
But our difficulties don’t have to become permanent excuses for never beginning.
There may be things we cannot change about our circumstances. There are still choices we can make about how we respond.
The question isn’t how many years we’ve lost. It’s what we’re going to do with the years we have left.
It’s Not My Decision
In The Pain Paradox, I defined our authentic self as the image or vision God had in mind when He created us.
The Authentic Self is who we were meant to be. Doing what we were meant to do. Using the gifts and talents we were meant to use, while sharing the love we were meant to share.
And of everything I’ve learned through my research, writing, and personal experiences, this may be the most important:
I don’t get to decide what God’s will should be for my life.
God created me. He gets to decide.
I don’t get to choose a direction simply because it’s comfortable, enjoyable, or easy and then assume it’s what God wants.
That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with enjoying life. But comfort and enjoyment aren’t necessarily evidence that we’re living according to God’s purpose.
And that brings me to something I found particularly striking.
What Jesus Said About God’s Will
When I began studying how Jesus spoke about doing the Father’s will, I was surprised by how often He returned to the subject—and how strongly He emphasized its importance.
He taught us to pray:
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” — Matthew 6:10
He said:
“Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” — Mark 3:35
He described doing God’s will as His very sustenance:
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” — John 4:34
And facing the cross, He prayed:
“Yet not my will, but yours be done.” — Luke 22:42
That last statement is especially powerful to me.
Jesus knew what lay ahead. Yet He placed the Father’s will above His own desire to be spared that suffering.
If Jesus placed the Father’s will above His own, why do I sometimes act as though mine should come first?
That’s a question I have to ask myself.
This Is No Dead-Walk Tread
The turning point in the song comes when we move from drifting through life to deliberately choosing a different direction:
Choke on the dust of promises broken
Listen to the Word, my spirit awoken
Die in this dirt or take my rightful place
I stand at the altar in a river of grace
I love that image.
There’s a choice to be made. We can continue chasing the promises of money, comfort, recognition, and an easy life, or we can begin seeking something far more meaningful.
The chorus declares:
This is no dead-walk tread
We live Your will instead
Open eyes
You lead the way
Purpose breathes till my dying day
That’s what I want for my life.
Not simply to be busy. Not to accumulate more things or achieve some impressive list of accomplishments.
But to become the person God created me to be and use whatever gifts and opportunities I have for something that matters.
The song continues:
Walking strong, talk is real
Soul is Yours, not to steal
Spirit leads the hard road way
Follow Your will till my dying day
Notice that it doesn’t promise an easy road.
Following God’s will may be difficult. It may require sacrifice, discomfort, and changes we’d rather avoid.
But the alternative—spending our lives pursuing things that ultimately don’t matter—isn’t much of a bargain.
Time to Use Our Gifts
There’s another line in the song that I especially like:
The One who cares most
Is waiting at the door
TIME TO USE OUR GIFTS
TIME TO GO TO WAR
Not a war against other people.
A fight against our own complacency, indifference, distractions, and the temptation to settle for a life that asks little of us.
God has given each of us something to work with. Different gifts, different opportunities, different circumstances.
The challenge is to do something meaningful with what we’ve been given.
And perhaps that begins with taking an honest look at how we’re spending our days.
Am I using my gifts and talents, or allowing them to go to waste?
Am I pursuing what matters, or merely what’s comfortable?
Am I seeking God’s will, or asking Him to bless plans I’ve already made?
And perhaps most importantly:
Am I living my days—or are my days living me?
I don’t want to spend the rest of my life drifting.
I want to keep learning, growing, serving, and pursuing the purpose God has for me.
Because the clock is running for all of us.
And you can’t win a race you never begin.
The Authentic Self — Where Faith, Truth & Inspiration Meet.
Reflections inspired by Dead Walk Tread and the themes explored in The Pain Paradox and Brave the Wave.
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