FINDING YOUR PLACE
“I
am only one, still I am one. I
cannot do everything,
still I can do something. I will not
refuse to do something I can do.”
-Helen
Keller
By
Beverly J. McKinney, B.TH, M.Div, M.Ed
These
words comes from a woman who
experienced much adversity but found
her reason for existence. Helen Keller
was deaf and blind not from birth but
from a serious illness she had succumb
to at nineteen months old. By age
seven, through much perseverance she
had invented over sixty different signs
that she could use to communicate with
her family. Miss Keller went on to
excel in higher learning. In 1900, she
was admitted to Radcliffe College. In
1904, at the age of 24, Helen graduated
from Radcliffe
magna cum
laude,
becoming the first deaf and blind
person to graduate from a college.
Helen went on to become a world famous
speaker and author, and advocate for
people with disabilities.
Helen Keller discovered why she was
born and what she was born to do. We
also must travel down that road of
self-discovery to find our place of
belonging, and that place of belonging
is called “Purpose.”
We live in a high tech, fast track
society which tends to dictate our
attitudes and behaviors regarding life.
Society says that the following things
are important: (shelter, food,
clothing, sports, love, sex, money,
power, politics, job, email,
retirement, etc.). Society says that
these are the things that make us who
we are, but in reality these things
provide no eternal value. They provide
no eternal legacy because they are only
temporary. “Things” can
never define you only “purpose
can define who you are.
The “Purpose” of God is
eternal and it’s universal. It
creates value and significance, not to
the degree of being arrogant and
prideful, but from the standpoint of
knowing that “purpose” is
connected to God. Once an individual
discovers why they were born and what
they were born to do their
self-perception begins to change,
because purpose changes your mindset or
how you think. A
“narcissistic” or
“self-centered” attitude
cannot co-exist with
“purpose”, because
“purpose” extends beyond
the individual. “Purpose”
is connected to the Kingdom of God, and
when it is connected to the Kingdom it
becomes universal and global.
Therefore, “purpose” does
not only benefit the individual but the
world also.