How to find joy in your irrelevance.

Have you ever struggled with what your purpose in life may be? Or what your identity in this world is? Surely there’s got to be more than getting up, going to work, coming home, running errands, doing chores, and [fill in the blank]. There’s got to be a greater meaning and purpose than the mundane existence you call ‘life’. Right?!?

Maybe you question it daily. Maybe you’re constantly feeling inadequate, irrelevant and insecure. Maybe you’re lost and lonely. Or maybe you’re just trying to find some joy in your otherwise boring life.

When you shift your focus to one of unselfishness, a sense of fulfillment depletes the emptiness inside.

When you stop concentrating on yourself (your insecurities, your failures, your hopelessness) and start concentrating on others, your sense of ‘me’ disappears. (Philippians 2:2-4) When you shift your focus to one of unselfishness, a sense of fulfillment depletes the emptiness inside.

We’re called to be servants to others. We each have a special gift to be used to help others. (1 Peter 4:10, Galatians 5:13-14) When we only use our gift for our own selfish gain, we will never feel complete. A part of us will always feel deficient and unhappy. When we surrender our pride for someone else’s gain, our desire to be relevant is quenched.

When we surrender our pride for someone else’s gain, our desire to be relevant is quenched.

If you want to find your identity, you must be willing to let go and lose yourself. (Matthew 10:39, Mark 9:35) Your purpose in this world is to serve and help others. (Matthew 5:16, John 13:12-14, Acts 20:35, Galatians 5:14) What you do in this world to help those in need will erase your need for relevance. It is by what you do for others, that you will find your peace and joy with yourself. (Ecclesiastes 3:12, Galatians 6:9)

By the work one knows the workman.

– Jean do La Fontaine

Can you think of a time when helping someone else ended up helping you? A time when you put your own stuff aside for the sake of others? How did you feel once you were finished?