I am sitting at my keyboard not sure of what to type. I used to have lots of time to read, meditate, contemplate, etc. my life as a Believer, but these days are making it harder to do this anymore. I heard a quote (not from the Bible, but a secular reference) that really struck a chord with me...got me back into this wistful place of contemplation and meditation about the world, about my God, about my walk with Him...Here is the quote I heard...Happiness or Purpose, a life being lived cannot follow both paths. Living a life of happiness requires living and focusing on the day at hand. Living a life of purpose means you are haunted by regrets of the past and anxious or hopeful for the future.
This saying got the old wheels turning in my head again. First off, the Word has little to say about "happiness", so that word has little relevance to me (although it has great relevance in our cultural context). The biblical word for me would be "joy", but joy and happiness are very mutually exclusive ideas (but, alas, I will get past that part). The rest of the saying really got me thinking though. If it is true, I must be living a life of purpose (and by the way, the word "purpose" here doesn't inherently mean a "good" purpose) because I rarely concentrate my feelings, thoughts, and emotions on my current "day". I spend a lot of energy thinking about my past, failures and successes (ugghh, I hate those words)..check that, setbacks and progressions, and learning from them. I spend time thinking about how gracious, merciful, and patient God was with me when I was straying far from Him. I think about my life as a single and how much it has changed. I think about how radically God has changed my worldview concerning His Kingdom on earth. I think about past things..often..in the present. Then I think about where I am going and who I am becoming. I think about being a missionary again. I think about providing for my family's future and progressing as an individual, husband, father, son, etc. Lest you think I only have positive thoughts...I think about fears of the future as well: age, retirement (another foreign concept in Scripture), health concerns, how to be a father and husband, and fears.
So, a life of "purpose" is what that is huh? I think not. Maybe ideologically it could be thought of as that. As the show Heroes says...just saving the world. However, the Bible speaks about living for the day and being concerned with only that, for who knows if tomorrow will ever come. It also says that the past has been washed away, lest we hang Jesus again over and over. My point is this: living for the day is hard, but its biblical, and things that are biblical are often hard. I need to learn to let my past be my past and not to worry about the future, which, according to this worldly quote, leaves me with a life void of purpose...which is great news to me, because I know of a different story than the world's....
2 comments:
Our drive to live substantially with a long-term aim is, I think, a very human thing. Closely related to the "eternity set in the heart of man" Solomon talks about in Ecclesiastes. And yet, nowadays, we also have something else in our hearts besides this drive for purpose. We have the Spirit, the very person of God. So we have purpose and the Person who designs, defines, and delivers that purpose. And while we may not know fully in this life the whole "purpose", we can increasingly know the Person who explains that purpose. Maybe that's where happiness and purpose come together? In the increasing knowledge and experience of God?
BTW - Thanks for this post! Eager to talk in person!
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