Have you settled? What a chicken plant taught me about purpose

By Benjamin Windle, Op-ed contributor Saturday, November 14, 2026

“I settled.”

Those two simple words echoed through my entire soul. They came from a coworker in his 60s who was putting a verbal bookend on his career — and perhaps a life that had once seemed much more promising.

I was at the other end, just out of high school, determined to pay my way through college by working odd jobs. Both of us were now working the night shift at a chicken plant, stacking boxes for a living. If you’ve never been in a chicken plant, first of all, I don’t blame you. But let me paint the picture. The warehouse had to be kept freezing cold, so in the middle of the summer we wore ski jackets and thick gloves. After a few hours, the smell of poultry clung to you like a second skin.

Beyond the smell, it was an incredibly monotonous assignment. For all of us. Hour after hour, we stacked boxes on a conveyor belt to be loaded onto trucks bound for grocery stores.

The conversation with my coworker opened my eyes. He wasn’t bitter. He wasn’t blaming anyone. He was warning me.

In psychology, researchers call this moment a “counterfactual,” when you suddenly see what your life could look like if you don’t change course. The chicken factory wasn’t just a job anymore. It became a prophecy. A cautionary tale.

I needed that reminder. I grew up attending amazing youth conferences in the 90s. Thousands of teenagers gathered in an auditorium with dynamic speakers who told us the world was a great big adventure and we were going to do pioneering, transformational things. And we believed it. We were ready to risk everything for the mission of God. We believed faith was an adventure worth our sacrifice, that God’s call was worth stepping into the unknown. We were convinced our lives could matter for something eternal.

Somewhere along the way, however, I lost sight of that. I lost the sense of a great adventure and, more importantly, purpose. They had been robbed from my life by two other very simple words — boredom and comfort.

It was the boredom of a life without purpose, without a villain to confront; a life that has lulled us into a shallow sleep. This boredom is subtle, but it’s everywhere. You can see it in the scrolling that never satisfies. In the travel that excites but leaves us hollow on the return flight. In the ambitions that shimmer for a season and then dissolve into dust. It’s the great ache of a generation that has traded calling for convenience, mission for motion, depth for distraction.

In turn, comfort meant avoiding anxiety and uncertainty. It meant choosing complacency over risk, staying at the bottom of the mountain rather than climbing to the summit. Comfort insulated me from rejection and pain, but it was also slowly becoming a coffin.

I wasn’t alone in my struggle. According to a June 2026 Gallup poll, 43% of Gen Z adults reported feeling little to no sense of purpose. Another 2026 poll shows a drastic decline (64% in 2010 to 44% in 2026) of young adults ages 18-29 who feel that their lives are “thriving.” If ever we needed to discover adventure and our sense of purpose, it’s now.

The human spirit was made for summits, for risk, for the raw air of something beyond us.

If you want a life that matters, stop chasing trivial dreams. Step out of your comfort zone. Step into the unknown. Dare to dream a dream that is impossible without God — and when the villain shows up (and he will), don’t panic. It’s the sign you’re finally on the path. The world still needs changing. The mission of God is still worth everything.

Those two words — “I settled” — changed everything. I was determined to forge a new, less comfortable path. And I took a reminder from that processing plant — a black-and-white picture of a chicken.

The picture of that bird hung there staring at me for several years, a daily reminder of the day I almost settled.

Comfort is a challenge that we all face. So, let me ask — have you settled? Did you opt for routine instead of adventure, the familiar instead of the wild blue yonder?

Every single one of us has a life signature, a reason we were created. A great cloud of witnesses is counting on us to step into it. Discovering your purpose is the first step toward living it. Let’s go!