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I’m an editor at Penguin Random House and writer. I’m passionate about books and story and how they encourage and change people’s lives. My work has been featured in Christ & Pop Culture Magazine, Beloved Women, and Ekstasis Magazine.

“If you lose your purpose...it’s like you’re broken.”

Wisdom on Purpose From Hugo Cabret

Jamie Lapeyrolerie

Jun 1, 2023

“If you lose your purpose...it’s like you’re broken.”1

Years ago I read the fabulous book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It’s creatively done and a great story too. This quote is from a scene where the main character, Hugo, is figuring out why the various toys he has encountered were made. He discovers that it’s because they all had a reason for existence.

Our purpose. Something we’ve no doubt asked about or thought about at least once in our lives. But it can be fuzzy sometimes no? We continue to hear that our value alone comes from things like what big thing we’re doing, our side hustle, how busy we are, our platform, if were at the “right” stage of life, etc. Of course these things in of themselves aren’t bad, but how quickly they can become the focus, even with good intentions.

But I’m so thankful our value or worth and purpose isn’t found in these pursuits or status. While our paths and what we do looks different, our purpose on this planet is much more simple.

Our purpose is to live out a life of love.

Loving God and loving others. Our purpose is to bring faith, hope, and love to every human we encounter. For some, that will be on a big platform, releasing books, public influence, but for many, it will be on a smaller stage. And while this has been said countless times already, I’m so thankful one isn’t any better than the other.

And when we fully embrace this, we’re able to keep moving forward in the places God has for us. Whether that’s raising kids, fighting injustice, working a farm, being a writer, an artist, caretaker, or a mix of several of those…whatever it is, when we’re in the valleys and hard times, we can remember that we aren’t alone and we don’t have to take it on all by ourselves.

So never forget that you were made for a reason; that simple beautiful purpose of bringing hope to the world.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

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Hugo to Isabelle on page 374