Finding Your Purpose

I was wandering around campus across the beautiful Parrish lawn, admiring the sunlight streaming through the majestic trees, and wondering about my purpose in life, not knowing I was about to have an encounter with God. I had been having a bit of a difficult day. I had missed a leadership training for SCF in the morning, and I had to give up going to a Christian conference that I was really looking forward to going to for school obligations. “What was my purpose?” I was wondering. Like Benjamin Braddock from “The Graduate,” I guess I was “worried… about my future.” ‘Worried about my future?’ you might be wondering (as I’m sure readers of this blog should be able to identify with). ‘Why should you, a student at Swarthmore College, ripe in your youth, ready and able to tackle the world and to do so with a smile on your face, too, of all people, be worried about your future?’ Even if that were true, it wasn’t always so easy. I was worried, confused, and, more than anything, stressed out about my purpose. It just didn’t seem so clear once God threw a challenge my way, and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with my life anymore.

That evening after the church service, I was going to dinner downstairs when I saw a gathering of folks around the table discussing something intensely. Thrown for a loop, I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to help out with the planning of the Kids’ Christmas Service, which was happening right then. As I sat dumbly for a while, God intervened. “We’re going to read a traditional folk tale,” the Kids Ministry Leader more or less said (forgive the imperfect quotation), called “The Three Trees.” As she began to read, I felt something change inside of me.

Once upon a mountain top, three little trees stood and dreamed of what they wanted to become when they grew up. The first little tree looked up at the stars and said, “I want to hold treasure. I want to be covered with gold and filled with precious stones. I'll be the most beautiful treasure chest in the world!” The second little tree looked out at the small stream trickling by on its way to the ocean. “I want to be traveling mighty waters and carrying powerful kings. I'll be the strongest ship in the world!” The third little tree looked down into the valley below where busy men and women worked in a busy town. “I don't want to leave the mountain top at all. I want to grow so tall that when people stop to look at me they'll raise their eyes to heaven and think of God. I will be the tallest tree in the world.”

Years, passed. The rain came, the sun shone and the little trees grew tall. One day three wood cutters climbed the mountain. The first wood cutter looked at the first tree and said, “This tree is beautiful. It is perfect for me.” With a swoop of his shining ax, the first tree fell. “Now I shall make a beautiful chest, I shall hold wonderful treasure!” the first tree said.

The second wood cutter looked at the second tree and said, “This tree is strong. It's perfect for me.” With a swoop of his shining ax, the second tree fell. “Now I shall sail mighty waters!” thought the second tree. “I shall be a strong ship for mighty kings!”

The third tree felt her heart sink when the last wood cutter looked her way. She stood straight and tall and pointed bravely to heaven. But the wood cutter never even looked up. “Any kind of tree will do for me,” he muttered. With a swoop of his shining ax, the third tree fell.

The first tree rejoiced when the wood cutter brought her to a carpenter's shop. But the carpenter fashioned the tree into a feed box for animals. The once beautiful tree was not covered with gold, or treasure. She was coated with saw dust and filled with hay for hungry farm animals. The second tree smiled when the wood cutter took her to a shipyard, but no mighty sailing ship was made that day. Instead the once strong tree was hammered and awed into a simple fishing boat. She was too small and too weak to sail to an ocean, or even a river, instead she was taken to a little lake. The third tree was confused when the wood cutter cut her into strong beams and left her in a lumberyard. “What happened?” the once-tall tree wondered. “All I ever wanted was to stay on the mountain top and point to God...”

Many days and nights passed. The three trees nearly forgot their dreams. But one night, golden starlight poured over the first tree as a young woman placed her newborn baby in the feed box. "I wish I could make a cradle for him," her husband whispered. The mother squeezed his hand and smiled as the starlight shone on the smooth and sturdy wood. “This manger is beautiful,” she said. And suddenly the first tree knew he was holding the greatest treasure in the world.

One evening a tired traveler and his friends crowded into the old fishing boat. The traveler fell asleep as the second tree quietly sailed out into the lake. Soon a thundering and a thrashing storm arose. The little tree shuddered. She knew she did not have the strength to carry so many passengers safely through the wind and the rain. The tired man awoke. He stood up, stretched out his hand, and said, “Peace.” The storm stopped as quickly as it had begun. And suddenly the second tree knew he was carrying the king of heaven and earth.

One Friday morning, the third tree was startled when her beams were yanked from the forgotten wood pile. She flinched as she was carried through an angry jeering crowd. She shuddered when soldiers nailed a man's hand to her. She felt ugly and harsh and cruel. But on Sunday morning, when the sun rose and the earth trembled with joy beneath her, the third tree knew that God's love had changed everything. It had made the third tree strong. And every time people thought of the third tree, they would think of God. That was better than being the tallest tree in the world.

It’s amazing what stories can do to you, isn’t it? After listening to that, I had little to complain about. “The next time you feel down because you didn't get what you wanted, sit tight and be happy because God is thinking of something better to give you,” the last words of the book read. After I heard the story, I no longer felt as worried, upset, or confused. I still did, to some extent, but that was work that I needed to do, not because that’s how God wanted me to be.

God has a purpose for you, and you don’t need to worry about how big or how small it is or how exactly it will turn out. All you need to have is an idea, and that’s enough for Him to go by. After all, when you “delight yourself in the LORD… He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). “Pray, trust, and don’t worry,” Padre Pio says, for God already knows the desires of your heart (and, as my friend Liz aptly points out, He was the one who put them there, in the first place). And even while I was wallowing in gloominess and misery, I knew that God had a purpose for me, and that, through Him, it was all going to become clear again, in the end.