Struggles Shape Your Purpose

Marvel fans the world over were shaken recently when they learned about the death of Chadwick Boseman (aka King T’challa). Death is always shocking, but Boseman’s passing was all the more gripping because nobody knew about his struggle.

Over the past four years, Boseman starred in blockbusters like 21 Bridges, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, and Marshall. And during the filming of each movie, Boseman was undergoing treatments for stage 3 colon cancer. He clearly knew something about facing trials, wisdom that he shared in a 2018 commencement address at his alma mater, Howard University.

In the middle of his private battle with cancer, he gave this advice:

Sometimes you need to feel the pain and sting of defeat to activate the real passion and purpose that God predestined inside of you. God says in Jeremiah, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Later, he continued:

This day, when you have reached the hill top and you are deciding on next jobs, next steps, careers, further education, you would rather find purpose than a job or career. Purpose crosses disciplines. Purpose is an essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history. Your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to fulfill. Whatever you choose for a career path, remember, the struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose.

Then he concludes with these words:

When God has something for you, it doesn’t matter who stands against it. God will move someone that’s holding you back away from the door and put someone there who will open it for you if it’s meant for you. I don’t know what your future is, but if you are willing to take the harder way, the more complicated one, the one with more failures at first than successes, the one that has ultimately proven to have more meaning, more victory, more glory then you will not regret it.