Finding Purpose 4-22-16

“Light always trumps darkness. It always has, and it always will. Therefore… if you believe that your world is darkening…if you believe that the culture of your nation is growing dimmer by the year…don’t blame it on the dark! Darkness is only doing what darkness does.

“If darkness is winning the battles, my friend, it is because light is not doing its job. You are light. So wake up. Wake up.” – Author Andy Andrews

Mark Twain was once quoted as saying that the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.  For 45 years of my life I have tried to figure out why I am here.  For 45 years, purpose and passion has eluded me.  I’ve been successful but not fulfilled.  I have had passion but it came without purpose.

Growing up I had a strong desire to help and serve others.  My favorite days were those I spent volunteering for my Grandma’s church at the county fair making French fries and serving milk or orange drinks.  My favorite job was bagging groceries and carrying those overflowing bags out to cars in the remote parking lots of Frank’s Foods in downtown Elkhorn, WI all the while meeting new people and building relationships.

As a child and young adult I was lucky to have incredible parents, relatives, neighbors, family friends, mentors, teachers and coaches to look up to and guide me as I journeyed into adult hood.  Today the world is a different place.  Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau taken in 2014, showed that 1 out of every 4 children being raised in the U.S. under the age of 18 are being raised without a father and out of those children nearly half of them (45%) live below the poverty line.

Imagine 1 out of every 4 children, over 17 million in total, are growing up without positive male role models.  Can you imagine how many additional children there are that have fathers that are either not present or abusive?

Have you ever met an adult that has lost “hope”?  Maybe they’ve failed too many times, been passed up for too many promotions, gone through a heartbreaking divorce, or lost a loved one to illness.  Even worse, maybe they reached nearly every goal they set for themselves only to find out that what they had dreamed of all their life wasn’t it after all.  Not only have I known that person but I have been that person and what I can tell you is that trying to rescue that person is much like trying to push a rope up hill.  It is nearly impossible.

Unfortunately, there are far too many people in our country that have swallowed their dreams or have simply accepted that what they’ve got is truly all they’ll ever have.  Hope is gone.  In fact, according to Google, the word “hope” was searched approx. 4.5 million times in 2015.  When “hope” is lost, it simply takes way too much effort to get it back and therefore many people never do.

So once again, as Mark Twain had once said, the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.  If that is true, the second most important day of my life is 4/22 of the year 2016.  45 years, 3 months and 11 days after I was born.  That was the day that all my successes, my struggles, my failures, my knowledge and my unique set of skills merged together and formed my life’s purpose, the reason I was born.

That reason?   (MY PURPOSE): To provide powerful male and female role models, programs of inspiration, mentor-ship and tutelage designed to equip young men and women with the skills, the confidence and the mindset required to believe in the power of their dreams and individual greatness.

I will keep the flame of hope alive in these children long before it ever has a chance to burn out.

After sitting on this for a few weeks, I have no doubt that this is why God put me on this planet.  No doubt at all.  After struggling for years and not knowing “why”, finally having the “bigger vision” makes everything else seem so easy.  It is all just part of the journey to get where I am going.  I know without a doubt that success is certain.

Thanks for listening-

Kevin