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“…they wander about, each in his own direction; there is no one to save you.” (Isaiah 47:15)

A Harvard study showed 58% of young adults have no sense of purpose or direction in life. Behind this shocking number is a deeper problem. Headlines claiming younger generations have it harder than previous generations is a deceptive toxin which potentiates the problem. The problem of purpose is firs spiritual, causing hopelessness, which shapes these statistics. Today, I’ll address why young people lack direction and purpose and how to discover it.

“The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” (Proverbs 20:5)

Here are four reasons for lacking purpose:

1. The parenting problem. When parents don’t understand their purpose, they cannot lead their children to one. Parents wanting their kids to succeed and avoid painful mistakes focus on education, which is vital but not the same as purpose. The often leave purpose to their kids to figure out. Conflating purpose with vocation, parent default into one of two misconceptions, either: “Follow your heart and the money will come.” or “You’ll struggle without a high-paying job.” Purpose converges both extremes into a third reality.

2. Misleading Math. When statistics are pooled in aggregates, the real reality is obscured. The common equation compares the cost of housing to wages. This deceptive math makes headlines that podcasters and communist professors rely on to indoctrinate young minds against their own future. Comparing the price of rent to the minimum wage in 1990 to the same of 2025, there is only a 4% increase in the Denver metro area. Yes, college costs have risen, but the value of a “name brand” college means little compared to the past. With data, the outliers skew the aggregate results, but for younger people, their struggle is only slightly greater than Gen X in 90’s. Compared to Boomers, everyone has it harder, it’s time to get over that.

3. Disintegrated Cosmos. Today’s young adults see everything as separate, not integrated. We grow up assuming homework, sports, friends, hobbies, and family are all different things. This means purpose and direction are just two other things. Dis-integration is a spiritual delusion because the problem centers around our soul or “inner self” (ontological). We cannot be great in sports and bad at homework, or isolated with family and connected to friends. Such examples are deliberate choices, coming from our attitude or assumptions about life. Purpose becomes visible once we realize we only do one thing, but in many ways.

4. Attitude. Which comes first, the attitude or one’s lack of purpose? This question reveals how both are true and proves point number 3, that attitude and purpose are integral to each other. The attitude we control each moment, the purpose unfolds over time (decades) so there is no reason to force it. This discovery is the moment life can change. We can put purpose in our attitude, revealing the macrocosm is integral to the microcosm and vise-versa.

Consider also these factors: The economy, decline in social interaction, adoption of socialist ideals, rise in psychotropic medication, amorality, antinomianism, and the delusions of social media. These war against a person’s perspective, will, and motivation to co-create the world.

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” (Proverbs 19:21)

What can a person do whom has no sense of direction or purpose? I’d start with these question:

1. Are you capable of true self-reflection? If the answer is no, you’ll skim over your life’s purpose as it unfolds.. Our purpose is discovered in concert with self-discovery. If we lack genuine self-criticism, reflection, and inner transformation, we’ll miss our purpose. Purpose is derived from our Divine designer and is the fulfillment of our existence. If we ignore the True North of God, then our purpose will be fabricated and superficial. A sense of direction is our ability to make mid-course adjustments to align with our purpose as it unfolds. Without self-reflection, we lack the connection between what is today, and what we desire one day.
2. Is the world about you? If our worldview is myopic (short sightedness) or selfish, we will miss our true purpose. Hedonism and Nihilism are common worldviews which germinate in the spiritual ground where purpose should be. A person who plunders life for selfish gain or pleasure is living contrary to purpose. A person who is lazy, pessimistic, hopeless cannot appreciate purpose and will not discover it. If life is all about oneself and not others, purpose will remain obscured.
3. Are you dis-integrated? If we cannot connect seemingly disparate things, we not only lack intelligence, but live a fragmented existence. Dis-integrated perspectives make purpose confusing. If direction and purpose are just two other things among a million separated things, then we’ll wait a lifetime for it stand apart. Purpose is embedded and hidden in literally everything. Direction is our ability to perceive purpose in all things and make course corrections. Gaining direction is the skill of connecting the details of our purpose over time. We never begin with our ultimate purpose in mind, but just the essence of it. My kids developed a strong sense of purpose by connecting tedious homework, to their life dreams. Writing an English paper is how to become a pilot, years before flight school.
4. What do you hope for every single day? Purpose is so intrinsic to our being that we cannot go far from it without causing emotional dissonance. If our hope is only for short term pleasures or survival, we are under hoping (hopeless). If our hopes are only for ourselves or our family, we are selfish. If we dream of something that would benefit others and it’s really hard to obtain, we might be on the right track. True purpose is something big enough to shape us because we will be willing to sacrifice and change in order to possess it. The difference between true purpose and having an idol is only a few microns, but true purpose will bear that out through humiliation, while an idol does so through pride. Do we build a business or does the business build us? Purpose is both. To have nothing you desire is spiritual deadness.
5. Can you be good now? True purpose and direction are not deferred realities. Purpose requires that we receive, and live in and with your life as it is today. Today is what purpose looks like right now. If we lack gratitude and don’t apply ourselves in excellence and diligence to the requirements of today, we won’t discover true purpose. People who say they’ll be generous once they have wealth only become stingy rich people. The person who can’t stoop to sing for a small crowd will never sing in a stadium. We experience purpose in small ways every day and that’s how it grows.
6. Give to the world, or plunder it? Purpose is our personal mission and service to the world. I’ll expand on this next week when we discuss work, but I’ll make this point now. Our lives aren’t for ourselves. We’re not to dismiss or diminish ourselves, but we also don’t exist merely for our desires and impulses. Our design is to function as an integrated whole. No one finds success by themselves. True purpose working together for the benefit of others and it keeps us from forsaking, abusing, using, manipulating, or dominating others for our gain. We are filled by others and we therefore must make a habit of filling others when it is in our power to do so. In one sense, our true purpose is the next person in our immediate proximity, or moral proximity.

I hope these perspectives will help you to understand that your purpose won’t magically appear one day, but has been a part of you…hiding in plain sight. Trust the Lord in the small (next) thing, and then it will gradually appear.

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” (Proberbs 4:18)