Posted on October 19, 2011 - by Dr. Steven Wyatt

The Purpose of Life

If I had a dime for every time I have dealt directly or indirectly with the bottom-line  question, “What is the purpose of life?” with clients in my office, I would be rich.  It’s definitely a central question that everyone eventually yearns to answer.  For years, I saw this question as rather deep, and as having an answer that is either so complex that it will never be found, or is buried so deep within us that we have to wait for years or go through significant trials to discover it.  To my surprise, the answer that I believe to be true is amazingly simple.  Simple, and yet it has captivated me, frustrated me, stripped me of all that I thought I was, humbled me in all the right ways, and finally, led to a peace that I wasn’t sure I would ever have and now know with complete joy that I will never find the end to.

In my process of discovering the meaning and purpose of life I’ve followed several blind alleys.  The first one was thinking that if I just achieved the highest level of education in the field I was interested in I would have “arrived”.  When I received a Ph.D. in psychology I did, indeed, believe that I had scaled the pinnacle of life and my days of coasting in contentment had finally started.  Thank God I was wrong!  Looking back on it now, even though I completely love what I do as a psychologist I couldn’t begin to imagine the discontentment, restlessness and stagnation that I would feel if it was true that being a Ph.D. in psychology was “IT”.  You know what I’m talking about. It’s kind of like when you get anything new in the world, say a new car (or in my case, a new used car), or new clothes, a new job, a new friend, get promoted and move to another town, get a raise, earn an educational degree, etc. etc……. there’s always something else we want.  The new car becomes outdated. The new clothes wear out and become dated, the new job becomes routine, and so do our friends or another town, and we all know that not too long after having a raise we would love to have another one.  The point is, there is no end that is ultimately fulfilling.  So what is life, just an endless pursuit to jump through the next hoop or over the next bar?  The hoops just get bigger and the bar just raises as life goes on.  I know, you might be saying, “I’m not so sure, let me get the new car and the raise in pay and just see how I do with it!”  True, it would be nice, but mark my words; you will get tired eventually of whatever you have.

So what is it then?  What is THE ultimate, all fulfilling end goal or purpose of life?  As I said, I believe its simple – it is establishing and engaging in the process of deepening a personal, intimate relationship with God through Christ. I call this “the branch life” – a term fashioned from the wisdom of John, Chapter 15, where Jesus advises us to abide in Him as a branch abides in the vine to which it is attached and derives its life.

I literally spent 10 years struggling with this reality.  I had a real problem earlier in my life with the seeming exclusivity of Christianity (i.e. Jesus’ statement that, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” John 14: 6 NIV) and wondered how God could exclude other religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Confucius, etc. I also saw Christianity as nothing but showing up on Sunday to “the fashion show” where everyone came to the service to show off their newest clothes.  At any rate, I studied other religions for 10 years.  I read through many of the texts from other religions only to come full circle back to Christianity.  There is no religious figure in the history of man that made the same claims as did Jesus.  I found that there is very little room to “wiggle around” the blunt truth in John 14: 6.  One of my mentors said it best – I confronted him with the exclusivity of Christianity and he said, “Steve, I don’t know the absolute answers to many of the religious questions that scholars are still debating, but I tell you what, if you can find anybody who does it better than Jesus I want to be the first person you call.” Well I haven’t found anybody who does it better, and that’s how I decided to enter into intensive training in Biblical counseling and later to attend Bible College, because in the real world, “where the rubber hits the road” so to speak, secular psychology can help us “get by” but it can’t take us the distance.  Last I checked, there are 40 or so different explanations in secular psychology for the origin of man’s personality and behavior.  No matter how I shake it, I can’t make that into something better than one ultimate Truth.  Do I still use some tools from secular psychology in my practice?  Absolutely!  But these days I also make sure that whatever I’m doing is consistent with Scripture.

You may be asking, “So what does this mean, Steve? Are you now some kind of narrow-minded bigot? Are you one of those guys who beats everybody over the head with the Bible?”  Absolutely not! If anything, the boundless love of God that I know to be true and presently existent has softened my heart in that I have more compassion for the human condition, my own included, than I ever had before.  My experience is that nothing, be it depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, rage, relationship tension, etc. can stand in the presence of God’s love.

So, the blog has officially been started. We welcome your thoughts, questions, and musings. Stay in touch!