Sometimes the difference between being overwhelmed with concerns, issues or events (at your wits end) and being able to happily weather the storm is if you have identified your life's purpose.
Have you ever felt like your life is out of control, and every turn you make seems to bring more bad news or events? Many people have a 'that is life' attitude with regards to these types of issues. Often we (people in general) have no purpose for our life, and just live moment to moment, thereby reacting to every thing, and not doing things intentionally. I can say there have been times in my life that I fall into the reactive mode instead of following a purpose, and it is often at those times that I find it most difficult to believe I can be satisfied with life.
Recently our church did what they called '40 Days of Purpose', which was encouraging the entire congregation to participate by reading the book 'The Purpose Driven Life' by Rick Warren. Apparently our church was one of 10,000 plus churches that did the same thing from September 21, 2008 and November 2, 2008. We (my wife and I) participated in the event by reading the book, one chapter per day, as there are 40 chapters. It was while reading the book that I realized that when I feel life is going good, it is often because I am doing things purposefully in my life. Whether the things I am doing purposefully are for God's purpose or not (for my own goals), things just seem to be better. During the times when I had been doing things purposefully and what I believe were in line with God's purpose for me, life seemed to step up another notch entirely.
Reflecting on the readings and the history (experiences) my wife and I have had together in the 12 years (at the time of this writing) we have known each other, I can certainly see times when we have weathered the storms of life more easily and for the better when we kept our focus on our life purposes, and not the things that were happening. What I mean by that is, when I think of times we kept our focus on our life purposes, we were able to deal with the issue at hand in a more authoritative and calm manner. When I think of times where we had lost focus of our purposes, I would say our relationship would get strained while dealing with the issues that had come up, and we would not always make the best decisions on how to handle the issues at those times.
The book "The Purpose Driven Life" certainly has impacted our (my wife and I) perspective on the way we have been living life and how we will be living life in the future. We can see ourselves striving to stay focused on both God's purpose and our own goals for our lives. We can see our own goals changing to be more in line with God's purpose for us.
For more information on the book "The Pupose Driven Life" you can go to http://www.purposedrivenlife.com. The book should be available from any of the major book store chains.
