It seems that people have been trying to figure out what their life is ultimately about since humans first came upon the scene. I sometimes think of Shakespeare's:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances...
We have played many parts in this particular life story in which we are playing currently, or as some suspect are concurrently playing with other stories in other dimensions, or as still others suspect in this chapter of a long string of life stories across the ages - or just maybe all of the above. We cannot be certain, we can only look at mostly circumstantial evidence.
I have read Ian Stevenson's and others' works on reincarnation, and they are quite convincing. There are evidences of it here and there in various scriptures - such as when Jesus asked who do people say I am? (They replied, "Some think he is John the Baptizer, some say Elijah,
some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.") Nevertheless, it is this life of which we are currently aware that is where we can grow, expand, learn, and do. It is this particular life where we can fulfill our assignment/s or not.
We can look for patterns to discern what our assignment/s are. I seem to have born with a dual sign on my back - kick me, rise to the top of whatever you get into. I seem to have had an unusual portion of evil villains, extremely mentally ill people, and people who ask me to lead whatever, and those who hold me up and encourage me. I seem to have been given a double or triple dose of spiritual seeking, intuition, creativity, and resilience.
Sometimes I joke - standing in line, getting ready to come here, I signed up for multiples of everything - heck, I want to get all the karma over with and not necessarily have to come back to this planet again, at least unless I volunteer for some strange reason. But then, there is the odd chance I did volunteer this time.
What do we do with the patterns we see in our lives?
First of all, I think we have to take the "negative" teachers and do what Job did - keep the faith, stay with God, don't give up. With the "positive" teachers I think we have to do what Jesus did - don't fall into hubris, stay humble, stay loving, deflect: It's not I, it is the Father within doing the work; your faith made you whole, in the modern vernacular, don't buy your own press.
What difference does it make? That's where a lot of "modern" people, and probably people across history, miss it all. We all leave this stage. We all are accountable for our performances. We all have to experience a life review. We came here to learn. Did we? We came to this particular planet in this particular dimension where the curriculum focuses on love. Did we learn to love, to Be loving, to express compassion and all things related to unconditional love?
If we cannot give a resounding "yes" to the questions that will be coming our way when we leave here, there is time to do some repair work. Honestly survey your life. Are there people who need to be forgiven? Are there some kind and loving things we can do? Where can we be more like a child of God in our words, actions and deeds? What needs to change? Then do it, do it all. Become the best version of yourself.