The Purpose In Life

Josh McDowell told this great story:

An executive hirer, a "headhunter" who goes out and hires corporation executives for other firms, once told me, "When I get an executive that I’m trying to hire for someone else, I like to disarm him.  I offer him a drink, take my coat off, then my vest, undo my tie, throw up my feet and talk about baseball, football, family, whatever, until he's all relaxed.  Then, when I think I've got him relaxed, I lean over, look him square in the eye and say, "What's your purpose in life?"  It's amazing how top executives fall apart at that question.

"Well, I was interviewing this fellow the other day, had him all disarmed, with my feet up on his desk, talking about football.  Then I leaned up and said, 'What's your purpose in life, Bob?'  And he said, without blinking an eye, 'To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.'  For the first time in my career I was speechless."

What a great answer!  Clearly, this was something Bob often thought about and actually lived.  Put yourself in this interview for a minute.  What would you have said to this executive headhunter?  Would you have an answer or would you fumble around trying to think about the right thing to say?

Many times we as Christians have been told about the purpose of life.  The problem is, we don’t take it literally.  We may know the right answer, but we don’t actually think it and live it.  Can something really be our purpose in life if we rarely think about it and don’t live it?  Certainly not.

Bob had it right.  Our purpose in this life is to get to heaven (Ecclesiastes 12:13; Matthew 7:21-27; 1 Peter 3:21), and take as many with us as we can (Matthew 28:19-20).  Let’s not just know, but actually LIVE the purpose of this life, “To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.”