THE CRY BEHIND – THE CRY OF PURPOSE
The Battle Between Existence and Meaning
By Shae Bebeyi | Curiously Yours Arena
Sometimes, the deepest cry of a human being is not for more life, but for a reason to live the life already given.
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There is a difference between being alive and living a meaningful life.
Every morning, millions of Nigerians wake up, go to work, school, business or the farm, return home exhausted and begin the cycle again the following day. Years pass. Children grow. Hair turns grey. Then, sometimes in the quietness of the night, a person asks:
Is this all there is to my life?
That question may be the beginning of the cry of purpose.
A person can have a job without fulfilment, money without peace, influence without meaningful contribution or possessions without direction.
This is one of the paradoxes of modern life. We have more technology, information and communication, but not necessarily more wisdom, understanding or deeper relationships.
Survival can become so demanding that people stop asking what their lives are meant to accomplish.
Purpose gives direction to existence. Without it, we can become busy without being productive, successful without being fulfilled and wealthy without being useful.
Sometimes, we are simply running very fast in a direction we never consciously chose.
Society teaches us to pursue success.
Get the degree.
Get the job.
Build the house.
Buy the car.
Acquire the title.
Make money.
But somewhere in the race, another question must be asked:
Successful for what?
A young graduate may spend years searching for employment. An entrepreneur may have a good idea but no capital. A farmer may work hard but struggle with insecurity, poor roads or access to markets. A teacher may love teaching but struggle with the economic realities of the profession.
These realities make the search for purpose more difficult.
Viktor Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning, explored the human need to find meaning even in suffering. For many Nigerians, however, the struggle for meaning often exists alongside the struggle for survival.
This raises an important question:
How can people pursue purpose when survival consumes nearly all their energy?
Purpose is personal, but the environment in which people pursue it is social. Education, employment, security, infrastructure and access to opportunity can create room for human potential to develop.
Yet purpose cannot be left entirely to government or society.
There is also a personal responsibility to ask what one can contribute.
There is a child struggling with mathematics. Can I teach?
There is a young person without direction. Can I mentor?
There is a community problem. Can I help solve it?
There is knowledge I possess that others need. Can I share it?
Purpose often hides inside responsibility.
A teacher may find purpose in transforming minds. A farmer may find it in feeding society. A doctor may find it in healing. An entrepreneur may find it in creating value and employment. A journalist may find it in informing the public responsibly. A parent may find it in raising children with character.
The profession may not be the purpose.
The contribution may be.
One practical way to think about purpose is to ask:
What am I good at?
What does my society need?
How can I connect the two?
A young person who learns solar installation, for example, is not merely acquiring a skill. In communities struggling with electricity, that skill can become a solution and eventually a source of employment for others.
A woman who begins processing agricultural produce from her kitchen may be laying the foundation for a business that later employs other people.
Purpose becomes clearer when ability meets need.
Another obstacle is the pressure to live somebody else’s life.
A young person may study medicine because the family wants a doctor. Another may pursue wealth because society measures success by possessions. Someone else may chase public recognition simply because everyone around them appears to be succeeding.
But purpose is not a competition.
The farmer should not feel inferior because he is not a banker. The teacher should not feel insignificant because he does not drive an expensive car. The artisan should not consider his work inferior because someone else has a university degree.
What matters is the value and integrity with which a person uses what they have been given.
One of the clearest tests of purpose is the question of legacy.
If I disappeared tomorrow, what would remain?
Would my family remember my love?
Would my students remember what I taught them?
Would my employees remember my fairness?
Would my community remember my contribution?
A person’s legacy does not necessarily require a monument.
A teacher may leave one through students. A business owner through jobs created. A parent through children raised with character. A writer through words that continue influencing minds.
At death, titles disappear. Offices change hands. Possessions acquire new owners. Applause fades.
But consequences remain.
The child we educated may educate another. The person we encouraged may find the courage to continue. The business we built may feed families long after we are gone.
Perhaps the deeper question behind human existence is not simply:
How much can I get?
It is also:
What can I give?
Not merely how many people know me, but how many lives have I improved.
Not simply what I will possess, but what I will leave behind.
Life is both a gift and a responsibility.
If I am educated, who becomes wiser because of it?
If I am wealthy, who becomes better because of it?
If I am influential, who becomes stronger because of it?
If I have opportunities, who else receives an opportunity because I used them well?
Perhaps the cry of purpose is simply the human desire to know that our existence matters.
One day, the noise will stop. The race will end. The applause will fade.
What will remain is not merely how long we lived, but what our living produced.
May we not spend our lives merely counting the days.
May we make the days count.
May we not merely occupy space.
May we create value.
May we not merely pursue success.
May we pursue significance.
And may we discover that purpose is not always found by looking far into the future. Sometimes it is found by looking carefully at the need directly in front of us and asking:
What can I do?
This is The Cry of Purpose.
But once we discover why we are here, another question inevitably follows:
What will remain when we are gone?
That is The Cry of Legacy.
DemocracyNewslineNewspaper September 27, 2026
