I saw Creed III on March 7, 2023 (highly recommend it!) and marveled as I watched Jonathan Majors on the screen. Not just because he’s been my celebrity crush since I first saw him in The Harder They Fall but because I truly believe he is a dynamic actor. And his role as Damian Anderson alongside Michal B. Jordan’s Adonis Creed further cemented his talents for me.
As I’ve watched his seemingly “overnight glow up” over the past few months, I have often found myself thinking, “Wow, he’s really in his purpose.” Not just because I’ve watched numerous interviews where he has explained his dedication to being an actor or how he immerses himself in every role, but because he has “made it.”
Jonathan Majors isn’t on the super celebrity status as the Denzels and Tom Hanks of the acting world, but he is quickly becoming one of the most recognized and praised young black actors of our generation. He has already reached a level of movie stardom that many actors dream of, and I can imagine that he’s just getting started. So, from someone outside of Hollywood looking in, he’s made it.
And I would offer this same sentiment to many others who have reached a certain level of success. If someone is doing exceptionally well in their field, to the point that they continue to advance and receive accolades and recognition in said field, they have undoubtedly made it, right? And to go a step further, not only are they successful but they must also be walking in their purpose.
I tend to think it in terms of purpose because up until last year, I had been consumed with purpose for as long as I can remember. I grew up hearing “God has a special purpose for your life” in church, and I made it my mission to ensure that whatever I did with my life would be aligned with that special purpose.
I can imagine that I am not the only person. Most Christians grew up hearing similar sayings, such as:
God has a purpose for you
God gives us a purpose
There is a purpose for your life
Find your purpose
The pursuit of purpose seems to give us our life’s meaning. And I know that for the longest I had attached purpose with my career. Makes sense, right? We spend the majority of our days (and lives) working, so why wouldn’t I want my work to also be in my purpose? It sounded like a win-win. And this deep-rooted thinking is part of the reason it was so easy for me to look at the accomplishments of someone like Jonathan Majors and automatically associate his career success with him being in his purpose.
But at the end of 2022, God challenged me to adopt a different perspective of purpose. As the new year approached, I was of course thinking about purpose and if I was in God’s will for my life. As I attended church on Christmas Day with my family, the church played a video about the birth of Jesus. This was a common Christmas story, but as I watched it, a very uncommon thought popped into my head:
Purpose is not always pleasurable. In fact, purpose can be painful.
As I celebrated the birth of Jesus, I was overwhelmed by the fact that he had come to earth for one specific purpose: to die. It sounds harsh when we strip away the harkening angels, three wise men, and cute nativity displays with Jesus swaddled in a manger. But it’s the truth.
Jesus was born to die.
He was Word become flesh in order to sacrifice his life so that we may receive salvation. It’s true that he came to heal the brokenhearted, give sight to the blind, let the lame walk and the dumb speak, and even raise people from the dead. He did all those things and more as he preached the Gospel, yet his ultimate purpose for ever stepping foot on this earth was to die.
Without his death we have no hope, no redemption, no salvation, and no eternity with God.
Sacrifice. Pain. Longsuffering. Endurance. Humility. Obedience. When you really think about Jesus’s purpose, those are some of the words that come to mind. And that’s a big contrast to how we often view purpose today.
Purpose is about me, myself, and I. Purpose is how God is going to bless me and the great things God is going to do through me. My purpose always leads to success, so much so that if my life has hardships or adversity or if my business, ministry, or organization aren’t at a certain level of success with many followers and recognition, I must not be in the purpose God has for me.
Nowadays, walking in and pursuing purpose are taught to be exciting journeys that always lead to success and prosperity.
But nothing about the cross itself was pretty or pleasurable.
I write all this to say that we should not be deceived into thinking the purpose God wants to accomplish through our lives will always equal pleasure, success, or prominence. Walking in our purpose won’t always look pretty and accomplishing the purpose God wants to work through us may not lead to our modern-day definition of success. Just because someone looks successful or accomplished and has influence and prominence does not mean they are in their purpose. And this is true of Hollywood actors to Instagram influencers and everyone in between.
I won’t lie and say that my mind isn’t still tempted to associate career success with being in purpose. It took years to lay that incorrect foundation, so undoing this thought process is a continual work in progress. But I’m grateful God continues to chip away at it every day and replace my beliefs with his truth.
Because the truth is that although I can see many examples of worldly success around me, one day they will all fade. I can watch someone’s success on the big screen, but that too will slip away. Yet, the true illustration of purpose will always remain:
Jesus, with nails pierced through his hands and feet and blood spilling down his face
Naked and fully exposed on a cross
Mocked and ridiculed as he hung dying
Feeling forsaken as he cried out to Abba God
Was 100 percent, without a doubt accomplishing the purpose God desired for his life.
It was not glamorous or attractive. It did not ooze success or wealth.
Yet, it produced the greatest gift anyone could ever receive.