In Jeremiah 1:4-5, the prophet said this: “Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.’”
The Psalmist says it this way in Psalm 139:16: “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
The Apostle Paul said “God…set me apart even from my mother’s womb” (Galatians 1:15).
Maybe you’ve noticed the theme here. God had a plan for you from before you were even born! He knew what He wanted you to do, learn, and become. He didn’t wait until you developed a few skills and then say “Wow, she’s got a really good voice, I think I’ll make her a singer.” No, He had a plan.
What’s God’s plan for your life? Do you know, 100% for sure, without any doubt, that you are doing the thing you were created to do? If you don’t, you’re in good company. Most people don’t even believe that their life has some purpose greater than themselves. But most people who do believe in ultimate purpose still don’t know their own purpose or direction.
The very first thing we need to settle in our minds if we are to continue together in Personah is that every one of us on this earth was created by God for a specific purpose. That purpose fits each of us into an enormous puzzle of sorts that comprises the whole, beautiful, multi-cultural, multi-talented world in which we live.
Without this knowledge, we drift. With no rudder to guide us, we might as well be a leaf floating on an endless sea. If you don’t know where you’re going, then any old road will do. We must be convinced that we have a specific purpose, then we must be honest and brave enough to figure it out and do it!
That’s where Personah comes in. We are going to unwrap this huge but vital topic. We’re going to look at research, and teaching, and all kinds of pontificating about finding purpose and meaning, about establishing a path, about plugging in to the puzzle so that the whole puzzle can make sense.
From a Christian standpoint, some of this might sound “New Age.” That’s because Christians aren’t accustomed to talking about this stuff. But we should. Of all people on the planet, Christians ought to be most interested in the way God made them so they can take their rightful place in the earth. After all, our mandate is to bring heaven to earth, but how can we do that if we’re lying on the couch with a bag of Cheetos on our bellies waiting for the rapture? We need to figure this stuff out, and do it now. Time is short. The world needs us.
This quote from John Eldredge’s book Wild At Heart is one of my all-time favorites:
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, because what the world needs are men who have come alive.”
What makes you come alive is to do the thing you were created to do. You’re going to love it! It’ll make you come alive in ways you never dreamed possible. You’ll find the thing that keeps you up late and makes you lose track of time, the thing that causes you to groan with concern, the thing in the earth that fuels a righteous anger inside you.
And you will become yourself.
God wants you to be you, not a caricature of someone you think is cool, not what you think your rightful duty as a Christian soldier ought to be, not what your parents or spouse or anyone else tells you to be, but YOU. One good indication of your destiny is that it will be something you love, something that makes you “come alive.”
So, the journey begins. I hope you enjoy your stay here, and I hope you keep coming back for more. We will try to keep this site full of good and valuable resources that can help you on your path to discovery, the path that leads to that one specific place that you were created to occupy.
Don’t fear the process. Don’t think it’s unspiritual or New Age or a waste of time. If God saw fit to plan out your life from a time before you were even born, then don’t you think He wants you figure out that plan? It’s not going to drop into your lap. “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2).
Please trust me. I’ve gone – and am going – through this process myself. Have been for decades. I know something about it. And I believe we can have a really fruitful conversation together as Personah grows. Come back often for new research, advice, personal experiences, and even questions and admissions of ignorance or fault. I want to stay transparent here, because no one knows all of this perfectly. I want to discover this together with you, and in so doing, make the entire world a richer, more diverse, and more beautiful place.