I spend a lot of my day alone in a delivery van, driving between houses that all start to look the same after a while — a ramp out front, an oxygen concentrator humming in the front room, somebody’s whole life narrowed down to one recliner by a window. You’d think that would wear a person down. Some days it does. But it’s also where I do most of my thinking about what it actually means to live with purpose.

Here’s what I’ve noticed. Purpose doesn’t usually show up as a lightning bolt. It shows up in the driveway of the third stop of the day, when you realize the reason you’re tired isn’t the job, it’s that you’ve been carrying something for somebody who can’t carry it themselves anymore. That’s it. That’s the whole revelation. You show up, you do the next thing, and somewhere in there you find out what you’re for.

Faith is the same way for me. I didn’t get handed a clean theology that answers every hard question. What I got was a habit — praying in the truck between stops, mostly one-word prayers, mostly just “help” or “thank you.” Over years, that habit built something in me that I can only describe as trust. Not certainty. Trust.

If you’re looking for your purpose, I’d say stop looking for the big answer and start paying attention to what keeps showing up in front of you. For me it was sick people, tired families, and a body of work I never planned on. For you it might be something else entirely. But it’s probably already in front of you, not somewhere you haven’t found yet.

A few things that have actually helped me, not as a formula, just as honest practice:

Start the day with one honest sentence to God, not a performance. Pay attention to who you keep being drawn to help — that’s rarely an accident. And when doubt shows up, and it will, don’t treat it as a betrayal of your faith. Treat it as part of the conversation.

Life is short. Purpose isn’t a destination you arrive at once and keep forever. It’s something you keep choosing, one ordinary day at a time.