Returning to the Why
By Anthony Casperson
10-28-23

The journal/quest log is an important aspect of a video game RPG’s interface. It records important places, people, and missions set for the player. And keeps players updated as to how much progress they’ve made in various quests. After all, in an RPG there are many storylines to keep track of. (Poor application of a quest log is even the reason why I quit one of the only games that I’ve never finished.)

Sure, some people might rarely ever open the quest log, because they’re only interested in steamrolling through the main quest. And a number might just want to meander without worry as to progression of a storyline.

But for many of us, that quest log gets opened time and again. We need to figure out what the next step is. Where we’re heading.

And I often want to remind myself of why my character has set off on the various questlines.

When we get lost about what we’re doing, we find ourselves returning to the purpose we had to begin with. Or, as one preacher I heard recently put it, “When we lose our why, we lose our way.”

Quite often, when we find ourselves feeling disappointed about life or certain circumstances, a sense of lostness accompanies it. It’s like we wake up from a fog, look around, and ask where we are. How did we get here?

Finding ourselves in this position is a part of the human condition—though some find ourselves there more often than others. But how we deal with this situation has vast differences.

When we find ourselves in this situation one of the best things we can do is ask ourselves what our purpose is. What’s the why? Both in a grander sense of purpose in this world as a human being, and in a narrower sense of purpose for this specific part of our lives. For instance, what is our purpose for: the job we have, the place we live, the romantic relationship we’re in (or not in), the friendships we have, the places that we serve others. The list could go on.

We need to take a second to open the quest log of our lives and be reminded of why we started this part of our adventure to begin with. Because if we don’t, we’ll continue to aimlessly drift through the rest of life, without any real accomplishment.

As far as the narrower sense of our whys, there are many possible reasons. Too many for me to list out in this blog. And I’d certainly miss some. But with regard to the grander sense, I believe we followers of Jesus have the same why. So we can talk about that. And possibly that larger why might flow into the narrower ones as well.

If there were a book of the bible that could be said to include the lessons learned from an oft-lost way, it would likely be the book of Ecclesiastes. Throughout the book, Solomon experimented with many possible answers to find fulfillment in life. From good food, to good sex, to amazing accomplishments of work, the author of Ecclesiastes tried it all.

But when it’s all said and done, Solomon ends the book with a statement of our why for life that proves to be the only purpose worth having. In Ecclesiastes 12:13, he writes “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

In the end of all of his experimentation to find purpose in this life, he has discovered that the only purpose which works—the only why that’s worth coming back to so that we can find our way—is fearing God and keeping his commandments. Worshiping God in his rightful place and growing to be holy like him.

Everything that we followers of Jesus do in our lives should be for the purpose of glorifying him and growing to be more like him. Any purpose beyond that will eventually lead to a lost way. Away from the life that we want—and that God wants for us.

So, we need to open up the quest logs of our lives and ask how the things we do every day are bringing God glory and/or leading us to be more like him. That’s how we keep from losing our way in life.

When we’ve lost our way, return to the why of glorifying God and growing in holiness. It’ll never lead you astray.