It is crucial for us to know our why in life.

For some of us, our why may be our precious children or grandchildren. For others, our why might be positively impacting or transforming the lives of others, or taking specific steps or initiatives to make this world a better place. Knowing our why to helps us know our reason, meaning and purpose in life.

Let’s say someone asked you if you could figure out a way to extract water from an object, a plant, or from deep underground. You might try to do what you could to make that a reality, if for no other reason than to satisfy our curiosity about whether it could be done.

But, what if the reason for initiating that project was to provide life-giving fresh water to those that did not have it and could not get it? What if, by being able to create such a source of fresh water, you would save hundreds of thousands of lives a year?

Wouldn’t that give your project more meaning? Wouldn’t you put a little more effort into it ensuring it would become a reality? That’s because now you would have your why.

Your why is your philosophy and reason for doing something. The what is how that is fulfilled and carried out.

When you know your why, your what becomes clearer. You find more options because you have a greater sense of meaning and purpose.

For parents, our why is our children; our what is taking them to school, reading with them, teaching them, loving them, and spending quality time with them.

As Christians, our why is living like Jesus Christ. Our what is caring for the poor and needy, offering a place of worship and community for like-minded folk, transforming the lives of others and making ourselves better through thought, word and deed as much as we can each and every day.

Having that knowledge of why is so important because from there we are able to live a life with greater purpose and meaning. We begin to feel better about ourselves, we start viewing the world and others in a more positive light and we are given a sense of identity, purpose, hope and fulfillment that we might not otherwise have been able to obtain or realize had we not known our why.

For us here at Tuskawilla Presbyterian Church, our vision, mission, and why is: “To love our neighbors, be active disciples, and bring others into fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

For those that follow Christ, the hope is that their why is to live as God intended and desires of us, and as Christ displayed in His life. From there, the whats become so much clearer.

How do we do this? We serve others, we help those in need, and we welcome any and every one that comes through our doors, whether it is for worship on Sunday or education and community during the week. We offer educational classes of all sorts from life-giving studies on marriage or forgiveness to learning about how to equip ourselves to be better people on a personal level and on a communal level.

I encourage you to not only find your why, but make it a goal to help someone else find the why in their life, too.