Passion or purpose?
It's hard to navigate this life as an adult - 'adulting' is hard! And I feel like the universe tricked me into becoming one. But nevertheless - I must soldier on.
I have been learning a lot lately and I have really been trying to understand my life's journey. I have conversations with friends and with God often about what my purpose is. I scroll through social media and I am bombarded by the many podcasts, clips, conferences and posts about living your purpose and by extension- 'your best life' and many times it leaves me feeling a bit- well- inadequate.
It seems as if everyone is living that 'purpose driven life' except me!
"Find what you are passionate about" they say.
"Do what you are passionate about and you will never have to work a day in your life!"
"Find your purpose" and the universe will unfold itself to you.
These statements have become very popular in our culture lately so I wanted to take a little peep into the passion / purpose mentality.
I like that word 'passion' It seems intense, exciting and energizing. There are a few things I am passionate about, my job, my children, creating learning tools for my classroom are just a few. I will spend hours on end creating tools for my classroom and have been known to burn dinner because I was so wrapped up with making something I totally forgot I was cooking. If I am to follow the 'passion' guide, creating learning tools could be something that I could happily do for the rest of my life! This kind of passion can also be monetized and that could lead to me living my best life too. Passion, this tangible that can get you on your life's path does have a flip side though.
I'm passionate about writing, yet, I haven't written a single word on here since January! I think about writing all the time, and am subscribed to so many newsletters from writers,I have read so many blog posts but still that passion hasn't translated into anything remotely meaningful. Maybe my passion has waned and it just needs a new course or an amazing motivational speaker to get things kick started again? What do you think?
The truth is - Passion lies.
Passion is controlled by emotions. Emotions? well they are a fickle thing.
Passion is a feeling, an emotion, a strong will to do something that drives you. As long as emotions are at the heart of a thing, we must step back and examine that very thing. Emotions are wrapped up in self.
For an art course, I interviewed a well known Jamaican painter, I asked him - 'how do you get the drive to paint so many things?' His response - 'I wake up and I don't want to always finish what I start but then I remember that I have a family to feed, and so I do what I must.' Passion? His passion to provide for his family was greater than the passion that started his creative works. Both, however feelings of duty. Duty to self, duty to family.
So if passion is a liar -what of purpose?
As for finding purpose? I didn't even know it was lost. Let's be honest - at some point in one's life they will question their true purpose on the planet. What am I here for? Why was I created? What meaningful thing should I be doing to impact the world?
How does one seek out that which is seemingly lost? Send a search party? Call in the coast guard? Ask family and friends? Search within? Go on a retreat? Do meditation and yoga? I don't know either - I never professed to know anything. But I do know someone who does.
All the years I thought God forgot to make Eve, I always felt like she was an after thought until I recognized that God had that intention all along. He just wanted Adam to equally recognize that he needed someone too. It was not until Adam was actively doing something that he recognized that he was indeed one of a kind and that is when God created his Eve.
That same God that helped Adam, is the same God we serve today.We don't need a 'discovery call' or to do a course on Udemy. Our purpose has already been given to us. We need to be in union with our maker and the best thing is - he will help us to do the work - not do it for us though!
We have to do the work - Listen, scientist say there are 1.2 million known species of animals on the planet - known! Adam had a lot of work to do and when we read the bible, we tend not to place it in its proper time context - this whole animal naming purpose of Adam probably took years. And he had to be original too, with zero duplication - just wow!
Purpose takes the same amount of work that passion does - the difference is purpose is God given and passion is self driven.
So that seemingly elusive purpose that so many seek, how does it reveal itself to us? Live in the presence of God. Walk and talk with him in the cool of the day and follow his command to be fruitful, replenish the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Genesis 1 vs. 28).
Can I be frank, knowing ones purpose doesn't mean that we will live it out, just like being passionate about something means that we are going to do it. Living a God given purpose requires trust, love, faith and total obedience. Purpose carries responsibilities that one might not be prepared for and that is one reason we don't go searching for it, we are made to discover it when we are uniquely ready to take it on. The Lord must prepare us as he did Adam, helping and guiding on the way.
How can we be sure we are in purpose or passion? The truth is we can be passionate about something and that is not what the Lord would have us do to reach the lost. We can be passionate about medical advocacy or feeding the homeless or teaching, all good things, yet, it might not be your God given purpose. It might just be something you became deeply enthralled in because of a life experience or a goal you had as a child. That thing you are passionate about is not necessarily that gift that will make room for you.
Passion can mimick purpose so closely that it might be hard to decipher between the two.
Passion wants to help people too
Passion makes you do the work as well
Passion drives you daily
Passion needs sacrifice
Passion needs sacrifice
Passion feels optimistic all the time
Passion can bring fruitfulness and growth in many areas
Passion can take you many places - infront of kings even
Passion can seem innate
Passion has imposter syndrome too
How do you know for sure you are walking in God's purpose for your life? I don't think that you can ever be 100% sure but I do know that if you are in communion with him, it will become clearer when you actually begin.
That purpose thing - it requires real sacrifice. I don't want to do it sacrifice
That purpose thing - it requires time and communion with God.
That purpose thing - it requires faith
That purpose thing - at the heart of it is love
That purpose thing - it requires a trust, not in self or your innate abilities but a trust so big, it's scary
That purpose thing - it requires work
That purpose thing - it requires a vision so much bigger than yourself
That purpose thing - it requires fasting, prayer and action
That purpose thing - it requires you to do a thing without knowing what the next thing to do is
That purpose thing - it is hard and it is scary.
Not every one is passionate about a thing but every one was created with purpose. Everyone. Stop searching for your purpose. Simply ask God to reveal it to you and then move at it purposefully.
I write not out of passion, I think I did at first, but now I must write out of purpose.
Share how you will commune with God to reveal his purpose for your life
Share how you will commune with God to reveal his purpose for your life
Jeremiah 29:11For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
you may also like: this post on fear
or this one on faith
you may also like: this post on fear
or this one on faith
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