Purpose Where You're Placed

"Reina was born to be the empress of Neir. She knows it like she knows her own name."
That is the first line of the back cover summary for Mirror. And it's similar to a statement I've made countless times. I'm meant to be a teacher. Meant to be an author. Meant to be... fill in the blank.
But what happens when your "meant to be" doesn't match your present moment? What happens when you know you're meant to be or do something, but you've got no idea what that "something" is where you find yourself? Like Reina, lost in the wilderness instead of ruling her empire, do we know how to determine our "meant to be" even if we have no idea what we're doing where we are?

I went to a conference with my church family about a week ago where one of the main messages that stood out to me was the idea of finding purpose where you're placed. The idea was that, wherever we find ourselves, we are not in our current position by accident. The thing is, I can understand that easily when it comes to my characters. I know why Reina was in the wilderness instead of on her throne. I know that she had a purpose and a mission even while lost and far from where she wanted to be. There is a reason for each event, each new place or circumstance she finds herself in. Because stories are designed with purpose. Characters are placed with purpose.
And yet, I overlook so often the designs that the Author of my life has (which is crazy considering that God's authorship is so, so much better than mine). So if I can recognize that I see the full picture for my characters and make sure everything works out and has purpose, then I can recognize that those same concepts ring true in my life.
And thinking about that sparked a bit of a perspective shift for me (probably a shift that will result in poor book marketing decisions, but what else is new?). Because the thing is, in each place that I have any sort of presence or voice- whether in real life or the wide world of the internet- I have a purpose. And I sincerely doubt that my purpose is just to take up space and go through the motions. At school, my purpose is not to simply show up and teach enough to get paid. In writing, my purpose is not to write solely for my pleasure and entertainment (although I am blessed to find so much of that in writing). On social media, my purpose is not to just churn out enough flashy content to hopefully convince some people to read my writing.
Does that mean I now know exactly why I am in each circumstance or setting? No. Does it mean I always know exactly what I'm supposed to do in every place I find myself? Also no. But it means that I want to be more conscious of living and engaging with purpose. So if I'm dedicating my time and energy to something, it will be with careful thought devoted to what makes that something purposeful and worthwhile.
Again, I really don't know what this is going to look like. I'm not even entirely sure why I'm putting this all out there. I guess maybe it's just to process it myself. And maybe with a little hope that there are other people who are looking for more in life, and this can inspire them to consider what purpose they have where they are placed. Because what I do know is that the Author of all our stories doesn't do things by accident.