Life Lessons: Nine of Ten – Live Your Purpose

October 1, 2025

The organ is a fascinating instrument. My grandparents owned a pump organ, technically called a reed organ, that now resides with my oldest sister, who does a great job playing any type of keyboard. As a child, even though I had no real interest in learning to play it, that pump organ always captured my attention.

I was amazed at how it produced sound. Air powered by foot pumps flowed into the organ resulting in music. But what really fascinated me were the stop knobs. These stops regulate airflow across different sets of reeds, each producing a distinct sound or timbre. It’s similar to how different instruments can play the same note yet sound completely different. When an organist pulls out one or more stops, they change the character of the sound produced when pressing a key. It’s both fascinating and complicated.

Here’s an interesting bit of trivia. This is where the phrase “pull out all the stops” originates. When all the stops are pulled out, the organ produces its fullest and loudest sound. Similarly, when we pull out all the stops in life, we make every possible effort to achieve our goal.

Finding Your Purpose

Just as each stop knob on an organ serves a specific purpose, controlling airflow to produce particular sounds, each of us has a purpose in life.

Have you ever given thought to your life’s purpose?

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Back in June 2021, I wrote two articles exploring this topic: “Do You Know Your Purpose? Part One” and “Do You Know Your Purpose? Part Two and a Giveaway!”. In those posts, I discussed why we need purpose and shared the process I used in 2011 to assess my life on a deep level. That exercise came at a time when I desperately needed direction, and it proved transformative. I encourage you to read those posts, especially Part Two, if you want to understand the full process.

Why Purpose Matters

Living with purpose makes all the difference. When I’m intentionally living my purpose, that nagging feeling of lack of direction disappears. I no longer question the importance of what I’m doing or how I’m doing it. Instead, I’m able to set meaningful goals driven by my purpose. It’s a life lesson I wish I’d learned earlier.

There’s something even more profound about purpose. When your purpose aligns with God’s will, you find true success. I’m not talking about worldly success—wealth, health, power, or prestige. I’m talking about the success of walking in right relationship with God.

David beautifully captures this in Psalm 16:

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11, ESV)

When we recognize the path God has set before us, we discover fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. That’s because a purpose aligned with God’s purpose is lived in His presence and there is no better life than that.

Job, despite his tremendous suffering, lived according to God’s purpose and could declare:

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2, NIV)

This tells me that when my purpose aligns with God’s purpose, I will be successful. God’s purpose cannot be thwarted.

My Purpose

If you’re wondering about my own purpose statement (and haven’t read those earlier posts), here it is:

I will honor God by loving Him and serving others.

I know this may seem vague and lofty, but in my experience, the key is intentionally approaching everything with this purpose in mind. I don’t always succeed, but I’m much better off when I do. This purpose influences my choices: the activities I pursue, the goals I set, how I work with people, how I approach conflict, and how I respond to opportunities.

Determining my life’s purpose helped me navigate my last five years of my career and continues to guide me in retirement. My prayer is that you, too, are able to discover and live your life purpose—pulling out all the stops to make every possible effort toward what God has called you to be.