I have watched (and listened) to a few things over the last week that touch on the current notion of purpose. Specifically, the struggle that many are having with a life that feels meaningless, undirected, and utterly purposeless. This feeling causes people to lose joy and motivation in the lives they currently lead. A change is needed to regain some sense of what this life is for.
Netflix documentaries, TED talks, podcasts, and blogs flood our lives to help us answer these questions; they prey on our existential struggle and then fill the void with the solution that they believe will bring us back to meaning: minimalism, herbal remedies, self-discovery vacations, or stand-up desks. Whatever worldview they are selling sounds immediately tantalizing because it offers hope where we have none. It gives us direction and the promise of an escape from the struggle of insignificance. The problem, for anyone who has ever entered into this pursuit for meaning, is that each one withers. It leaves us jumping from one idea to the next as if they are drugs satisfying our craving. They give us direction, but they do not ultimately provide lasting purpose.
I was watching one in particular this week: a talk called, The New American Dream, by Courtney Martin. Like most of these things, I agreed with much more than I disagreed. She did a good job of describing the struggle: all of the effort we put into things that we don’t necessarily want to do, the system that is set up for a way of living that no longer matches the modern lifestyle, and the general feeling of despair at the end of the day. She points out rightly that a mindless pursuit of the American dream will consume you and all of your joy with it and then offers this solution:
Turns out, the biggest failure is not failing to achieve the American dream, it is achieving a dream that you do not actually believe in. SO DON’T DO THAT. Do the harder and more interesting thing: compose a life where what you do every day, the people you give your time and energy and love to, align most closely with what you actually believe.
As I heard her say this, I was reminded immediately of a famous line from the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan:
Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.
They are both right; we get stuck in habitual loops of action that trap us in consequences we don’t like. We get frustrated by where we end up, even though it is our effort in the wrong things that gets us there. We should do the harder work of aligning our lives with that which actually matters.
Where these two views diverge, however, is in how to determine what matters. In Martin’s view, purpose is going to come from us living out what we love and believe in. Meaning comes from aligning our situational reality with our beliefs; we find purpose when our life reflects what we think. The hard work is shifting our schedule and prioritize toward what we already love.
The Christian view of what matters (Chan’s perspective) is that all purpose is rooted in Jesus Christ. As the Creator and Sustainer of the world, we find meaning when we find Him. The hard work needed is to conform our lives to Him; to learn to love the things He loves. Purpose is found, not in situation, ease, or enjoyment, but in being connected to the Divine, working with Him for eternal purposes.
This is powerful! It allows us to live out the life we find ourselves in with meaning, not waiting for things to get better, but simply looking for God’s good where we are. We discussed this as we reflected on the phrase: Give us this day our daily bread, this week in our morning theology; seeing prayer as the means God gives us to regularly bring our needs and frustration to His feet to petition Him for magnificence in the face of monotony and responsibilities. What can be more dull (and great with cheese) than daily bread, but in prayer it is presented as a partnership between us and our Creator, a loving blessing from our Heavenly Father.
We all sense the same dysfunction in this world, but only one answer has the ability to fill the void. As it does, all situations, even the ones we don’t particularly like, have purpose.
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. | Philippians 4.12-13