This time of year always brings about excitement and expectation in our local communities. Friday night lights, school buses, and the light roar of the voice of students filling auditoriums, cafeterias and bleachers. One thing that gets me more excited than any of these things is when I look out on the crowds of students, one resounding truth floods my heart. These young people are full of potential, purpose and passion. I believe that your life will never make complete sense until you find, develop and serve in your purpose. That’s what we expect for these students every time that we come in contact with them, and we use that time to speak things over them. Things that they may have never heard, things that you may have never heard and it’s simply… “There is purpose for your life.” You were made on purpose for a purpose. Looking out over these students, I can’t imagine the things that they hear or read about themselves daily. That they’re an accident, entitled, selfish or a mistake. That they aren’t supposed to be here. But the simple fact that we have the opportunity to go onto school campuses along the coast and remind them that they have purpose and seeing them respond to that is so rewarding.
I realize that these young people are supposed to be here. They are an answer to someone’s prayer. They are a solution to a problem in this world, in this area, in their school, in their home, in their family. There is a reason why they exist, and it’s God’s will that they operate in their purpose so much so that God wants them to fulfill their purpose more than they do. All things were created through him and for him. Including these young, misjudged, ambitious, often misunderstood students. If there is nothing else I’ve realized while spending time on school campuses it’s that, living with purpose isn’t popular, but it’s powerful. And I’m excited and expectant that these students will begin to walk in purpose. That this year is not just another school year but a shifting in their hearts to make purpose popular. They don’t need popularity, they need purpose. They need Jesus, and apart from Jesus we will never find purpose.
God designed a purpose for you, long before others developed an opinion about you. I used to hate when people would say, “You haven’t changed.” I have changed. I didn’t work this hard to stay the same, and I know that this is true for the young people in our community. I know I’m tired of driving past people and walking into places and seeing wasted potential people. But what if… What if we began to speak to their potential? What if we began to speak to their purpose? What if we began to unearth the potential inside of them? I believe that our students want purpose more than anything else in this world. It’s just hard to live up to purpose when you don’t see yourself with purpose. So remember, there is purpose for their life. In fact, there is purpose for your life.
