We all long for and strive for living a life of purpose. None of us want to feel like we are just a cog in the wheel of life missing out on what we were made for. We want more. We long for more. Destitute is the man or woman who comes home at night and cries out, “what’s the point of all of this?”
Alaya and I have felt for many years that one of the things we are created to do is to help other people begin living out their God given vision, dreams, and purpose. We long to be a part of breathing life back into dead dreams. We want to see the dry river bed of people’s passion revived and overflow into action to impact the world for the Kingdom of God. We long to see people fall in bed at night from a hard day laboring to spend themselves on behalf of others exhausted, yet fulfilled.
The Purpose Paradox
With all of that said, there is a paradox that must be considered. The more one connects with their purpose, the more successful they will become. Because when we tap into our purpose it creates focus, energy, and drive. We begin functioning on all cylinders and we enter into the grace zone where it’s all just happening! Yet the more successful we become, naturally the busier we get. And the busier we get, the easier it is to lose sight of why we started.
You may be in the right job. You may be doing exactly what you were meant to do, but still feel dry and empty because you have lost sight of the reason you began it all in the first place. You may be a pastor that began with an overwhelming burden to rescue the lost. You cried when you prayed and wept when you walked. Your thoughts were overburdened with a deep compassion so you became a pastor. But years later all that consumes your thoughts and your mind is your to-do list. Now your prayers are disturbed by forgotten tasks and your walks are consumed with your upcoming calendar.
You may be a mother who started out with a passion to raise world changers, but now all you see is dirty dishes, diapers, and attitudes! Or maybe you started your career because you wanted to finance the Kingdom of God and donate millions to missions, but now all you see is deadlines, meetings, and mergers. And it seems like the busier you’ve become and the more ‘successful’ you’ve become, the more your hand of generousity has tightened not enlarged. Your vision changed from funding the Kingdom to growing your portfolio; from fighting for the lost to fighting to be the boss.
Busyness blinds the pain of the broken. Busyness clouds our compassion for the people we wanted to help in the first place. Busyness dims the flame of love. It drapes a veil over our hearts and clouds our vision of what really matters. Blessed is the man or woman who is able to be busy on what matters most and let slide the busyness that matters least.
How do you reclaim your compassion and get back to the heart of the vision?
1. Get away
Get up early. Go on a silent retreat. Spend a day walking and praying. Whether long or short get in a routine of getting out of the day-to-day tasks. Spend time thinking, praying, and dreaming. Spend time thinking about the people you began for in the first place.
2. Get back in their world
Who were the people you were passionate about helping in the first place? Was it sick people? Go visit the hospital. Was it orphans? Go spend some time with some. Was it the lost? Go where they are. Watch some videos, look at some statistics, read some books with their stories. Do whatever you need to do to get in front of the people you want to help to rekindle your compassion once again.
Go somewhere that will fan into flame a passion for others. Go to to a third world country. Stay in an orphanage. Go feed some starving children. Go spend some time with the poor, homeless, down and out. Play soccer with some street kids, crochet with the elderly, or serve at a soup kitchen. Nothing has changed my life like travel and seeing first hand the needs of others.
*If you want to come with us on a trip to Ukraine next year to serve in an orphanage click this link and let us know! Click here for info on our Ukraine Ministry to Orphans
3. Cut out non-essentials
So many times when I look at my calendar it’s full of good things that take the place of the great things. Evaluate that deep burden in your heart, the people you want to help, and how God gifted you to help them. Then begin eliminating what doesn’t align. If it doesn’t move your vision forward, grow your life or your family, It’s clutter.
4. Pray
Nothing will reconnect you with your purpose like connecting with the one who made you. Jesus is the one who created you, knit you in your mothers womb, and birthed a vision in your heart that would impact THIS world by building His Kingdom here. Seek FIRST the kingdom of God and everything else will follow!
Shoot me an email justin AT legacyhomesmn.com and let me know passion that’s been lost in your life due to busyness!