The Platform, Not the Purpose

In January 2005, Albert Pujols was already one of the most feared hitters in Major League Baseball. He had won three Silver Slugger awards and an MVP trophy with the St. Louis Cardinals. By every measure, he had arrived. Then his daughter Isabella was born with Down syndrome, and Pujols says everything shifted.

He didn't walk away from the game. He went on to hit 703 career home runs, retiring in 2022 as one of the greatest to ever swing a bat. But ask Pujols what his life is about and he won't mention a single statistic. He'll tell you about the Pujols Family Foundation, which has served thousands of families affected by Down syndrome and thousands more in his native Dominican Republic. He has said that baseball was never his purpose — it was his platform.

That distinction matters for every one of us. We pour so much energy into chasing the thing we think defines us — the career, the achievement, the title — when God may have given us those things not as destinations but as launching pads. Ephesians 2:10 tells us we are "God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Your job, your talent, your influence — these may be the platform the Almighty has built beneath your feet. But the purpose? That's the people He has placed around you to love.