We all struggle to find purpose at times.
Whether for a fleeting moment, a season of our lives, or even a career, we can all feel lost and even exasperated. We can look up to find that we inundated by the sense of merely floating, of failing to move in a productive direction, or of simply wasting our time. This sense makes us anxious that we have missed an opportunity or even worse, our calling.
Conversely, we can experience a sense of rhythm and growth at times which is so wonderfully reassuring that we are completely fulfilled. You know the feeling of assurance that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, doing exactly what it is you were designed to do. It’s a state typically witnessed in athletes, described as being in ‘flow’ or in the zone, and it is transcendent.
The question we naturally arrive at is then, how do we actively limit the trivialities and accentuate the sense of purpose? How do we enter into flow in our daily lives with respect to our jobs and relationships? The answer offered in Colossians is hope.
“The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.”
Per the verse, our sense of purpose is tightly aligned with our hope. What a simple, but brilliant revelation. For when we understand and appreciate the hope of our future, we are satisfied with our efforts, momentarily content in our present station, and optimistic about what is to come. Yet, when we lose the hope of what the future holds in our jobs, relationships, or otherwise, we lose with it our sense of purpose. The lines of purpose in our lives are kept taut by hope.
We must therefore be discerning in our pursuits. For our endeavors and relationships will either reinforce our hope, and thereby purpose, or descend us into a loss of both. The difficult question is then what does the future of our current pursuits look like? For absent a hope in their future, they will never yield the purpose we desperately long for.