Discipling Teens Through Doubt, Culture, Sex, Identity, & Purpose预览

PURPOSE

"Once you sense the gifting, here’s what follows: There's a push from the inside, there's a pull from the outside, there's a platform for opportunity, and there's the relationship that opens up doors."

—Dr. Ravi Zacharias, Axis ParentingTeensSummit.com interview

If you ever want high school or college seniors to stop staring at their phones, simply ask them what they want to do once they graduate. Their screens will go dark and nervous laughs, fidgeting, and deer-in-headlights stares are sure to follow. Why? Because, to them, that question isn't just about what they want to major in or what job they want to pursue. It's about their purpose in life: Why am I here?

And it can be a terrifying question.

With purpose, it's easy to focus on being holy, righteous, and pure—which God's Word clearly calls us to—but that's only part of the story.

Today's reading takes us back to when God created humankind and gave us purpose. First, God puts Adam in the Garden of Eden to work and take care of it, eventually creating Eve to be Adam's helper. So God created work and cultivation as part of His flourishing design. We were made to work—to develop, harness, and steward God's good world.

Next, Adam and Eve are tempted and choose to go against God's commands, ultimately bringing a curse upon themselves and all of creation. As part of that curse, cultivation comes at the cost of sweat and "painful toil."

Finally, the rest of Scripture details God's beautiful plan of redemption through Christ, not just for each of us individually, but for creation as a whole. He calls each of us into that story, not just as partakers, but as participants (and workers) who help bring reconciliation and life to the world around us.

With that as our framework, we can then begin figuring out our individual purposes. As Dr. Zacharias says in his ParentingTeensSummit.com interview, we start by identifying capabilities we do and do not have. Then we pay attention to the push, pull, platform, and relationships, which he explains in depth in his video.

Discuss as a family:

• What do you most enjoy doing? What do your family members do well? What do they think you do well?
• If it were impossible to fail, what would you do?

Dig Deeper: Click here to watch Dr. Zacharias' explanation of push, pull, platform, and relationships and to download the Action Guide for his interview.