Purpose

During the week of Vacation Bible School, I had the opportunity to work with one of the greatest groups of people anywhere. We had a class of adults with various gifts – and challenges – and a wonderful team of volunteers who came to help, have fun and be friends. We are grateful to Dahlonega Baptist Church who has opened their doors to welcome this class every summer for the last ten years.

Each day we reviewed a story from the Bible and talked about how it is relevant to our lives today. Thursday’s lesson theme was: My life has purpose.

One of the activities we did as a group was to write words or draw a picture of what we thought the purposes of our lives might be. Many people had a hard time thinking of something that would qualify as a purpose for their lives. With my background in teaching, I was tempted to brainstorm some ideas with the group to get them started but I decided not to this time. I wanted to see what they could come up with. We passed out small dry erase boards and markers and asked each person to draw a picture or write words to describe what they thought their purpose in life to be.

Once the group got started, my heart soared. There was not one selfish, greedy or materialistic thought – no mention of money, power, fame or status. One by one, we went around the room and shared our thoughts – volunteers included. I created a list on the large dry erase board at the front of the class so we could all see & celebrate our purposes.

Here is a list of purposes shared:

To be happy	Singing
Dancing	Work
Love – sharing God’s love, loving kids & babies	Going to church & Bible school
Sharing Jesus with others	Friendship
Serving	Helping others (this was mentioned by 4 people!)
Worshipping God	Making people laugh
Blessing others	Teaching others
Being thankful	Treating others nicely

(Click on the image above to see what the board looked like.)

It struck me that our group, like many other adults with disabilities, may have never considered that their life has a purpose. In our culture today, people with disabilities are viewed as a drain on society. An added expense, a lower quality of life and an inconvenience to be eliminated before birth if at all possible (as evidenced by recent “wrongful birth” lawsuits). These individuals who some view as a burden, shared that their purpose includes loving and serving others. I would go as far as saying that these folks do a better job than many others at realizing and carrying out their purposes.

What joy and fulfillment comes from realizing that because we are all designed and created by a loving God, we all have a purpose to carry out and gifts to share with those around us.

I am grateful that my purpose is to help others around our community & world see the value of people with disabilities and the wonderful gifts they have to offer us. ConnectAbility is one way that I’m able to fulfill my purpose and empower children and adults with disabilities and their family members to realize their own purposes.

-Jacqueline Daniel