In my last post, I spoke about the call of eternity in our heart and today I am going to linger in the same theme. If while on earth we are hearing the call of our home in eternity, then “why are we here?” That, my friends, is the million dollar question and I attempt an answer. Last week, I read a book by James Robbins titled The Call to Climb: A Story to Find Your Path, Conquer Your Fears, and Fulfill your Destiny, where he attempts to answer the same question. The insights gained from this book inspired this post.

In his book, James opines that your soul knows why you are here. He describes the soul thus:

“your soul has been with you since the day you were born. It’s the deepest, most authentic part of you- your true self, the part that knows the real reason why you’re here… (p. 21). Imagine you’re driving a car down the road of life, but your soul knows a better path- one that’s designed just for you. So it begins to pull the steering wheel slightly to one side. But instead of following it, you fight with the wheel and pull the car back in line” (p. 23).

Each of us were born with an imprint of eternity in us, in our DNA, and it comes from our Creator. It is an ancient path that pull us towards why we are here, our purpose on earth. And time and again, we get caught up in life’s busyness and forget to listen to the call of this path, which leads to unrest in our souls. We toil and toil, and yet at the end of the day, our toil does not make us feel fulfilled. If you are resonating with this then you can appreciate that feeling that your life is shallow, that it is missing something deeper and more meaningful. This is the feeling of living life out of alignment with the soul’s purpose. Now let’s look at a popular story in the scriptures to unpack this. Let’s read Luke 5:1-11:

1On one occasion, while Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret with the crowd pressing in on Him to hear the word of God, 2He saw two boats at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3Jesus got into the boat belonging to Simon and asked him to put out a little from shore. And sitting down, He taught the people from the boat. 4When Jesus had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5“Master,” Simon replied, “we have worked hard all night without catching anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.” 6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear. 7So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.” 9For he and his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10and so were his partners James and John, the sons of Zebedee. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus said to Simon. “From now on you will catch men.” 11And when they had brought their boats ashore, they left everything and followed Him.

Let us start with a focus on verses 4 and 5. Simon was a fisherman who in this point in the story had toiled all night and had come up empty. Even though he was going about his everyday life activity, his net was empty: he was unfulfilled, he was not feeling accomplished, something was definitely missing. Then Jesus said to him, “put out into deep water” to which Simon responds, “Because you say so, I will…”

For many of us, that emptiness is because we are living life on the shallow side. Our souls call for something deeper. God is calling us to step into the deeper side of life: to live more authentically, to stop seeking the approval of others, to embrace our identity as sons and daughters of God, to stop living in the shadows of our fears or our guilt and shame for actions of the past. God is calling us to the deeper life but because we choose the shallower things of life: instant gratification, self-loathing and self-deprecation, a life controlled by our fears and limitations, a life rife with the should’a, could’a, would’a and regrets, our nets turn up empty over and over again. Even with the accomplishments we have (material, financial, status, etc.) our souls remain unfulfilled. The psalmist experienced the same thing. He felt the despair of his soul and confessed, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me” (Psalm 42: 6-7).

For others, our souls are coming up empty not because we are not hearing the call, but because we have refused to listen and obey the voice that calls us to go deeper. I started by saying that we all have an imprint of eternity within us. Our souls, understand the ancient path because our essence is from of old…from the Ancient of Days. And if our lives are even slightly misaligned to the purpose of God for our lives, we feel it deep within. We feel the nudges and tugs of our soul alerting us to this misalignment just as one would feel the steering wheel in a car tug to one side when the wheel alignment is off. God calls our attention to the dearth in our souls in many ways, in scripture, through our quiet times with Him, through the counsel of people, and sometimes through physical symptoms like stress, anxiety, or depression- symptoms we cannot ignore. And until we, like Simon can say, “because you say so, I will…” we won’t experience the peace our souls so desperately craves when it is in alignment with the Holy One.

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Jeremiah 6:16 NLT

The day we were born, we were imprinted with the mark of our Creator, who breathed his life into us to make us living souls (Genesis 2:7). Job 32: 8 tells us, “But there is a spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding” (BSB). That which the soul seeks, the ancient path, also known as the good way or the godly path, can only be revealed by God’s Spirit.

But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

1 Corinthians 2:10-12 BSB

To know what the soul needs, to answer the question of why we are here, we need to listen and obey the voice of God that says, “put out into the deep water.” And friends let me tell what you will find at the end of that obedience. Like Simon, you will see where the emptiness in your soul stems from. In verse 9 of the scripture we we looking at, Simon discovers the source of the emptiness in his soul and says, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Sin was the limitation on fulfilling his purpose which was to be a fisher of men (verse 10). For some of us, sin is the problem we need to confront. For others, it may be guilt, shame, fear- of disappointment, of starting afresh, of failure, of not receiving the approval of others, low self-worth, etc. Whatever the limitation is, God’s spirit will reveal it to us in the place of obedience.

So back to the question, “why are you here?” Well, the answer is simple: Only God knows! But He lets you in on this secrets through out your lifetime. His Spirit, at work in your soul, reveals to you your life’s purpose if only you will listen and obey the call of the deep, the ancient godly path, the imprint of our DNA to be the full expression of God on earth. You were created in the image of God to live in the character and expression of the God that created you and your soul knows this fully well. Will you listen to the nudges of your soul? Let this scripture wash over you:

Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?… For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and [my soul] know this very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be.

Psalm 132: 7, 13-16 BSB

Yours Truly