DO YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR “WHY” IN LIFE?
Do you know and understand your why? If not, then this episode is for you.
As Christians, we believe that our purpose in life is rooted in our relationship with God. But how do we deepen that relationship? What does it mean to truly understand our why?
Join us as we delve into these questions and more, with a focus on the central role of love in our lives. From the unconditional love of God to the transformative power of loving others, we’ll explore the ways in which love can shape and guide our lives. Whether you’re a lifelong churchgoer or simply curious about the Christian faith, this episode will provide valuable insights into the meaning and purpose of our existence.
So tune in, and let’s discover together why love is truly our why.
Ways to work with Daron:
⚡️FREE: Jumpstart to Purpose
⚡️BOOK: The Death of a Dream
⚡️COACHING: Register Here
⚡️SPEAKING INQUIRIES: Click Here
Connect with Daron on Social Media:
Episode Player
Links to the Daron Earlewine Podcast
YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Libsyn
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
FULL TRANSCRIPT
What if you could wake up every day and just remind yourself of your why? Why do I exist? I exist today to be loved by God, and I exist today to love other people. This is baseline, this is foundational. This is your why of life. Love is the why of life
Tagline: Created on purpose and for purpose.
Everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Daron Earlewine podcast, Daron Earlewine, your host, and really excited about this episode and what we’re about ready to launch into a brand new series. Here’s the question, why do we exist? That’s it. We’re going to the deep end of the pool for this series, and I hope you guys are gonna enjoy it. It’s gonna be a three-part series, and we’re gonna basically answer three of the biggest questions that shape and form our life. I think you guys are gonna enjoy it. And I wanted to say before we jump into this episode, just thanks to everyone who’s been downloading the, the, the past series. We just finished the RENEW series. So many cool emails, text messages direct messages on social and stuff, and for folks just saying, Hey, thank you so much for this series, and here’s what I’m learning.
Here’s what God’s doing. Here’s the things I’m discovering. You know, I’m sending this to this friend. I sent it to an episode of this friend. And that’s why we do this. We wanna help you become who you were born to be. And we love it when we hear from you so we know how it’s hitting you, what you’re learning, and, and what you want to learn, what you want us to focus in on. Maybe an idea you have for an upcoming podcast series. We’d love to hear from you. And once again, the ways to do that, you can just reach out to me through any of the socials research for my name, and you can direct message me. You can also text me at 317-550-5070. That’s the text line here to the podcast. Or you can always email me, Daron, d a r o n, Daron@blackbirdmission.com.
So let’s get, let’s get rolling. We wanna wanna make these episodes power-packed and ready to go. And here’s, here’s the thing I want us to, to get our minds around as, as we jump into this huge question of why do we exist? And the truth about probably every great endeavor or quest in your life or in the world in general, starts with questions, right? You know, when you, when you say something, a ask this question like, will you marry me? Right? Big, big quest, big journey coming on the backside of that question you know, at some point someone was like, you know what? I wonder if we could shoot somebody to the moon. You know, I wonder if we could go to space. All these great quests, they start with, with huge questions. And I think oftentimes even some of the, the, the great quest to see truth and mercy and justice and things seem more of, of, of heaven come to earth, right?
At some point, people started asking questions like, why are, why are we having people of that are black and white eat in different places, right? Why don’t we have equal rights for women? All these huge world-changing type journeys and quests they began by people asking questions. And so, as we look at our life, I, I think at some point, right, if you’re listening to this podcast, you’re watching this podcast, thank you for those that have been subscribing to the YouTube channel, by the way, it’s great to see that grow. If you didn’t know, you can watch the podcast each and every week on YouTube if you want, or you can keep downloading the audio wherever you, you grab that. But if you’re listening or watching to, to the podcast, you’re asking questions or you’re least curious about the purpose of your life.
That’s what we talk about, right? The whole purpose of this podcast is to awaken you to become who God’s created you to be. And one of the first and probably deepest questions that we have to grapple with is like, why do I exist? And that’s huge. And and if you don’t know the answer to that, right? Your, your life, basically, at least the danger there is that you could be being controlled by circumstances, emotions other people’s opinions. You could be basing the foundation of your life on lies. And when you don’t start from the place of, of asking those type of questions and knowing that you have found good answers where you end up could be massive. I remember somebody telling me about, you know, the idea of a, like a cross-country flight maybe for this illustration before, right? That, that if you’re flying from New York to la right?
You don’t have to be way off in your heading, right? You can be just a few ticks off to the right or to the left. And if you’re flying for, you know, 30 miles, not that big of a deal, you’re probably flying the airport you’re looking for. But if you’re off just a few degrees and you’re flying from New York to after that, you know, 3000 whatever mile flight, you’re not gonna be anywhere close to la right? All of a sudden you’re gonna be like, man, it looks a little cold, mountainous, kind of like Alaska. That’s where we are, , right? And what I don’t want for you is, is to spend, you know, not depending how old you’re, maybe you’re 17 years old listening to the podcast, right? Maybe you’re 27 years old, maybe you’re 37 years old. It doesn’t matter where you are.
But what I don’t want is for you to, to be living your life even one more day. And you might just be a few ticks off of understanding what your true north is, understanding what your actual purpose for existing is. And I don’t want you to end up in a, you know, a proverbial, you know, Alaska of your life if you’re supposed to be you know, a San Diego, California type of person. And so, as we’re looking at this, we’re gonna make sure that we get the questions asked and, and answered in the right way. So the first one we’re gonna talk about is this. We’re gonna talk about why we exist. Then we’re gonna ask the question, who right am I? And then the last question we’re gonna deal with is, what do I do with my life? And asking these questions in this order makes a huge difference.
And I hope unpack that for you in these three episodes. Okay? So what we’re gonna do is we’re going to start with why, why do I exist? Why, why, why? You may have heard of the great book by Simon Sinek came out, you know, a handful of years ago, but it’s really called Start With Why. And in this is great quote for me. He says this, “very few people or companies can clearly articulate why they do what they do. By why I mean your purpose, cause or belief. Why does your company, or why do you exist? Why do you get outta bed every morning? And why should anyone care? People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” And obviously he’s speaking into the business sector. And that has to do with helping companies find purpose and, you know, and, and purpose statements and these kinds of things, and kinda the heart behind it.
But the reality is, is right, A great quote from a friend of mine, right? Is that companies don’t grow. People do, and companies are full of people. And, and so in your life, right? If you don’t know why you exist, if you don’t know your why, things could get really outta hand. So here’s the deal. One the things I want, I wanna up you unpack is this question I wanna ask is, do you know your why? And knowing your why actually begins to shape, I love this word, right? Shape your ethos. And if you’ve heard that phrase before remember learning this about 20-some years ago, and I was like, oh, wow, that’s huge, right? Because ethos is this, ethos is “the disposition character or fundamental values peculiar. I can’t say that word. I never can. I practiced this like four times before we started this.
I mean, it’s right there. P e c u l i a r, right? Pe peculiar, peculiar. They’re peculiar. Anyway, there’s multiple times in my life when I think about saying the word peculiar, I still can’t say it. And I can’t get my tongue to work, right? So I just choose a never word, but I couldn’t, it’s in the definition, you know how to say the word. Let’s start over again, right? ethos is “the disposition character or fundamental values peculiar to a specific person, people, culture or a movement. The distinctive spirit of a culture or era.” And, and the ethos, right? It’s the heartbeat of the culture of the moment. And, and the way you begin to know what your ethos is. And I remember learning this, like I said about 20 years ago from Irwin McManus, and he said this, the way you understand ethos is this, it’s your spontaneous reoccurring patterns or habits.
Spontaneous meaning you don’t even have to think about ’em. They just spontaneously happen. They are so part of your why, they just happen automatically. A couple of, you know, simple ones that, that he used illustrations as like, how many of you, like if you’re listening to podcast and it’s, you know, past like 10 o’clock, like, how many of us brushed our teeth this morning, right? And did anyone have to remind you to brush your teeth? I’m hoping if you’re over the age of like seven or eight years old, no one had to remind you, right? I’m hoping if you’re married right now, I’m like 25, your wife’s now like, I need to brush your teeth, right? If that happens, you have an ethos issue, right? You’re forgetting a little bit about your wife. But at some point in life, what happened is you began to have such a value, right?
For in dental hygiene, fresh breath, whatever, you don’t even think about it. You wake up every day, it’s part of your ethos. You brush your teeth, there’s another one, right? Seat belts, I would say probably 98% of us, the first thing you do when you get in your car, especially if you don’t want the beeping in the car to go away, is you put on your seatbelt. It’s a spontaneous reoccurring habit. Why? Because we have a value, right? In our culture for not dying in car wrecks. But what’s crazy is about 50 years ago, wherever you just even see the kind of seat belts that were in cars, right? Is there weren’t little beepers that went off that said, you know, you’re not gonna be able to drive without this annoying, you know, being in the background cuz you don’t put your seatbelt on.
It was kinda like, well, maybe where, maybe don’t, right? Even then, like dashes were made of like metal, not even like cushioning or whatever. There’s no airbags and, and we didn’t have a value for seat belts. Now it’s a spontaneous reoccurring habit. And so here’s the deal. As you begin to ask these questions as you know how to answer, the why what’ll start happening is that why will begin to shape your culture. It’ll begin to shape your ethos. So how do you discover, so Cecil, okay, okay, heard that. Now how do I work this then? So then you’re saying to really discover my why, I need to start paying attention to what I do spontaneously and then let that determine my why. No, absolutely not, right? You don’t pay attention to what you do to let that inform your why. What cannot come before.
Why? Because here’s the deal. We as human beings, right? We are not created to be self-determining creatures. That’s not the way it works as human beings. For us just to be able to say why we exist, we didn’t make ourselves, therefore we can’t actually dictate why we were created. It just doesn’t work like that. Like i, if you’re a potter, right, and you’re into art and you make a piece of pottery, listen, if you made it, you get the absolute opportunity to say what it is. You could have something that looks like a teapot and somebody goes, oh, teapot be like, no, no, I made this to actually be like a pin holder. Somebody said, well, you know, it could be a teapot. She’s like, yeah, I know it could be a teapot, but I made it. And so I get to say that this is actually a pin holder, right?
It’s a paperweight, whatever it is, if you make it, you get to determine its purpose. And the same is true for you and me. You didn’t make yourself or you didn’t save yourself, right? Ephesians chapter two and the message paraphrase right in there. It says, right, that we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and the saving. So in this situation, when we’re asking the question, why do I exist, we have to go back to our actual created purpose that we don’t get to determine. We don’t get to take a look at what we’re doing. What is the, the ethos and the culture of my life that’s probably gonna tell me like why I exist. It’s not gonna happen.
Not gonna happen. Is it time for you to take your next step towards discovering your purpose but you’re not sure what to do? Maybe jumping into the entire spiritual DNA course seems just like a little too much for you right now. No problem at all. That’s why I want you to know about the five Day Jumpstart to purpose. It’s totally free and it’s a five day audio course You’re gonna listen to just, it’s really short, like I know five, six minutes a day. But it’s gonna help you just, let’s call it an appetizer, right? To help you jumpstart this process towards purpose. It’s free. All you gotta do do is go to Daron earlywine.com/jumpstart. It’s looks like this right behind me on the screen. You’re gonna go there and we’re gonna send you the course for free and I’ll help you take your next step.
Cuz say we say it every week, I don’t want you to forget about it, right? God’s created you on purpose and for purpose. Let’s jumpstart that purpose. Now, let’s get back to the podcast. So we go back into this and we begin to look at the word of God and we begin to let it to actually shape and form what God says, the reason we exist. So we’re not the first people to ask these questions. Jesus got these questions often in Matthew 22, verse 34. He has an interaction with someone who’s asking some of these same questions, right? And these teachers of the law, they say the, the Pharisees get together and one of them an expert in the law, right? Test Jesus with this question says, teacher, which is the greatest command in the law? And Jesus replied, here we go. Here go, here comes your why.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as your self. All the law and the prophets. Hang on these two commandments. Okay? So why do you exist? Jesus lays it out. Right there you exist. Okay? Write this one down. Get a tattoo if you want. If you’re not in tattoos, just put it up somewhere to post a note and remind yourself every day you wake up. Why did I wake up today? Comes onto this to be loved and to love.
Why do you exist? To be loved and to love. Take a minute if you will, right? And let that just sink in because so much of, I think of our, our, our emotional, spiritual, mental lack of health comes from forgetting that baseline reality, like I I I exist today to do things and to accomplish things and to make money and to do no right. What if could wake up every day and just remind yourself of your why? Why do I exist? I exist today to be loved by God and I exist today to love other people. This is baseline, this is foundational. This is your why of life. Love is the why of life. Like you go back and think about that. Like I said, we need to make or save ourselves. So you say, well, why do I exist? Well, you exist for love, because God is love.
The word of God tells us that right? God is love and God created you, tells us in the Bible, in in Genesis chapter when he created us in his own image. So you are created for and by love. Bottom line. That’s it. That’s the story of your existence. Why you are here, why we are here, we’re on this earth to be loved and to love. Why did God create you? Because God loves you. God loves to create, God loves He actually God loves. When we’re talk about this in the new, one of the other episodes of this series, God loves relationship. God in himself is a relationship. Father, son, holy Spirit at all times. The three and one you are created in his image, the essence, the foundation, the baseline of your existence is to be loved into love. Right? Why does God love you?
Does God love you cuz of your what? Right? Okay. So you’re saying that I exist, I exist. The why exist is to be loved. So then I i it must be all the things. The what that I’m doing that is, that is getting God to love me. That’s what you’re saying, Daron. So I gotta, once again, I gotta go focus on the watts so that my why, no, not, not at all. Actually one of my f favorite stories right in, in Jesus’ life is right before he goes out to start doing what he’s called and created to do become the Messiah, right? The Savior of the world. He comes out of his baptism, right? He’s not done a what yet, right? There’s no miracles, there’s no walking on water, there’s no Jesus type what stuff that’s happened. We don’t know much about Jesus from 12 to the age of 30.
And I think that there’s a reason for that. I don’t know all the reasons for it, but there’s a reason for it. And, and part of it is this, I is he, he comes up outta the water and it says that a voice from heaven comes out, right? It’s the voice of, of, of the heavenly Father. And he says, this is my son and whom I love and whom I’m well pleased. What was Jesus’s why? To be loved and to love, right? The father didn’t say, Hey, this is my son. And I tell you what he’s about to do and what he has done really has caught my eye here. And he he’s worthy of existence right now cuz of how good, good he’s done thus far in life. That’s not what he said, right? He, he said, here’s the deal. The my son is worthy of existing because I love him.
I love him for who he is, not what he’s done. The purpose of your life is to be loved and to love. You go, okay, Daron, I get that, but what does that look like? So what, what would I, if that’s why I exist, to be loved and loved, what would the ethos of my life start to look like? Great question, right? All these great quests start with great questions. And w w we I think we, we throw that word of love around a lot, right? I love pizza. I don’t know about you guys. I love an In and Out double-double animal style. And I mean, I love it. Like, I don’t, I’m not a not a real violent fight. I don’t fight. I’ve never actually been in a real actual fistfight before, but I think I, I could possibly be moved to violence for a double-double animal style.
Like if someone tried to take my double-double, I think I’m at that level. It might be just below love, but it’s, it’s an obsession for sure, right? But here’s the deal. We throw the term around a lot. Love this. I love that. Hey, I love you. And we, and, and if you, if you wanna get a little idea, like, like look at human, human you know, culture is, we, we write about love in songs. We paint about love, we have movies about love. Like, love is is so much a part of, of, of our human you know, experience. But oftentimes I think what we see in love, and it may be tough for you, say, okay, it’s so much some I my I exist to love. And so what does it look like? Is I think it can be distorted by culture.
Cause I think a lot of times what we see that we, we call love in our culture, in our lives right now is actually a little bit more of lust, right? Like a lot of love songs that you hear on the radio, they’re not really about love, right? They’re actually about lust, right? Like, I think you’re hot. Like, I want to go out, I wanna blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. And that’s actually more selfishness, right? It’s, it’s more like romantic narcissism if you will, right? It’s not actually love. Sometimes maybe it’s interest, sometimes it’s fascination. But it’s not love. And I get it that, that an actual love song written based on what the scriptures say about love it, it doesn’t quite have the same like sexiness, if you will. Okay? Because here’s, here’s what it is. As Paul’s breaking out this whole I understanding of us and in love, he says it in first Corinthians 13 famous passage on love.
You’ve probably heard it at a couple different weddings you’ve been to. And, and Paul jumps into it and he says, this, guys, “if I speak in the tongues of, of men or angels, but I don’t have love, I’m only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.” He says, if I have the gift of prophecy and conf fathom all the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, like here’s a bunch of whats right. If I do all these, whats, but I don’t have love. I i am nothing. Why am I nothing? Because I am created to be loved in love. He says, if I give all the, everything I possess to the poor and give all my body to hardship, then I may then I may boast, but do not have love. I gain nothing. Then he, then he hits this.
You don’t hear too many songs that are written into this and, and, and, and there’s a reason. But if you’re, you’re, you’re actually starting your day answering their question, why do I exist today? I exist today to be loved by God and to love God and love others. Then these next parts come in here because love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It’s not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, it always trusts, it always hopes, it always perseveres. Love never fails.
But an amazing passage description, if you’re looking for some, some things to look at of like, okay, when I live from my why, what will my life start to look like? It will start to look like that. Once we understand why we exist, what begins to happen is we begin to become what we already are. Then our whats can begin to flow from our why. And the ethos of your life becomes someone who is patient in kind, doesn’t envy, doesn’t boast, isn’t proud, doesn’t dishonor people, isn’t self-seeking, isn’t easily angered, doesn’t keep record of wrong, doesn’t delight in evil, but rejoices with truth. You always protect, you always trust you always hope you always persevere. Why? Because you understand your why. Okay? If these descriptions of love, right? Are not a part of your ethos, you might not be living from your created. Why?
And why might that be? Because you may have started with your what. And we’re gonna unpack that in the next episode of how will we begin to get these you know, out of, out of whack. One begins to inform the other in a way that God did not intend. And so why do you exist? You exist to beloved and to love. The next question we’re gonna answer in, in the in episode two of this series is this, who, who were you created to be? And it’s so important that we go in that order, right? Why do I exist? And then who am I? That’s where we’re going to the next episode. I, I hope you, you, you download it next week as it comes out, and I would love to hear from you. If, if, if this is something that, that sparked something in you and you’ve got some questions, please reach out.
You can text, you can reach out through social, you can email me. I gave all those at the first part of the episode. But I’d love to hear from you as we go on this journey of answering these huge questions to become who we are born to be. So appreciate it. Have a great week and have a great rest of your day. And remember these three things. 1. God is for you, not against you. 2. He’s near you, not far away. 3. And he’s created you on purpose and for purpose.
We’ll see you next time right here on the Daron Earlewine Podcast.