I have been coming to terms with the fact that I am unlikely to be deemed employable either by my medical team OR my employer.  Perhaps some would find that to be great!  I do not.  I am thankful, however, that I am not prone to depression.  I do acknowledge that it is something I must guard against at all costs right now, as the opportunity for it is ripe.  In that vein, I have been questioning what my purpose is should it not include employable work.  (At this writing I am still homebound, so I am approaching the question from general terms.)

I began to look up different definitions for the meaning of life.  That is dependent, naturally, on where you are coming from with your center of core values.  One article tried to put the definition into an algorithm.  Hmmm. . . Not me, but perhaps you can agree with that.  Other suggestions included:

• God-Centered Views–one’s existence is more significant, the better one fulfills a purpose God has assigned. The familiar idea is that God has a plan for the universe and that one’s life is meaningful to the degree that one helps God realize this plan, perhaps in the particular way God wants one to do so.
• Supernaturalism–some kind of connection with God (understood to be a spiritual person who is all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful and who is the ground of the physical universe) to constitute meaning in life, even if one lacks a soul (construed as an immortal, spiritual substance). The latter deem having a soul and putting it into a certain state to be what makes life meaningful, even if God does not exist. Of course, many supernaturalists believe that certain relationships with God and a soul are jointly necessary and sufficient for a significant existence.
• Self-actualization– Maslow’s term for maximally developing all our potentialities, and thus reaching the highest level of psychological health and awareness, is merely the implementation of fitness increase in the mental domain

Being one who has strong convictions of my own beliefs about this answer, and yet interested in others’ response to it, the search readily began to flesh out into divisions:  a reliance upon a higher source than oneself, as in the first example.  The other main category was to put the definition into a reliance upon oneself.  To approach life from the philosophical viewpoint.  Interestingly, the second example co-mingled the two ideas. 

I have held to the strong conviction that my purpose is in what God has planned for me from before I even existed.  I see so much order to this world, and justice brought out of chaos when I choose that relationship.  For me, it is what separates the first category from the others.  A humble acknowledgement that I don’t have all the answer. . . in fact I don’t have most of them.  The good news is that I don’t have to know all the answers, but can turn to the One who does.  Not my last resort in challenging times like now, but my first resort.

I am interested in how others find their strength.  It is not my purpose to judge, but to solicit an open conversation.  Thoughts?