Life sometimes can feel like racing on a treadmill; a lot of energy is expended and at a great speed too, but no progress is made and no change is seen either. The walls we see around us are the same with each passing minute and that can impact our sanity in ways no psychiatrist can explain.
That is how a life without purpose feels like; like running a race of a thousand miles with no finish line ahead. Purpose is not about the many activities we engage in or the amount of energy we expend per day, neither is it dependent on the speed of our lives; “Oh, everything is happening so fast”, we say. But more often than not, we’re on a fast track to nowhere.
Most times we mistake purpose for the ROLES we play in life: father, mother, and provider etc. but without an aim to all these, it will simply be an exercise in futility. In ignorance we jump into the treadmill of society and try our best to increase the speed of our every activity, burning the wrong energies, hoping to find progress, experience change and most importantly obtain fulfilment and yet, we don’t. Purpose is the key to fulfilment in life; while on the other hand, maximizing your potential is the key to your purpose. Right within every human being is a store of exponential energy; it is called our God-given gifts and talents. It is meant to be utilized and maximized lest we implode to oblivion. Like we learn in physics, energy cannot be destroyed, it can only be transformed. That’s how the gifts in us linger, boiling… searching for expression, and when they don’t, they are transformed into destructive tendencies: violence, anger, depression and frustration.
If life has knocked you down and purpose seems to elude you, and you don’t know where or how to start, then remember the Chinese proverb ”the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, but the second best time is today.”
However if we must tap these potentials of ours, (and that we must), then we must understand how life brings challenges that only our gifts can solve. Applying our gifts as solutions to these problems is like using a surf board on a rising wave of the sea. It brings with it exhilaration and fulfilment so immense, it is ecstatic. That is a life worth living: solving great challenges with our God-given potentials.
Remember, no matter how much energy and speed we apply in the race of life, we cannot reach the finish line if we are on the wrong track. It isn’t about speed because sometimes we have to slow down in order to catch up with the God-given purpose of our lives. It’s time you found your purpose.
“God’s gift to us is our potential; our gift back to God is what we do with it.”
Adams Allison
I love this. I see so much of myself here especially in the ROLES part.
Thanks for this, it gives one a sense of direction. More ink in your pen 🙂
This is the second time i am reading this article, it made so much meaning i could not ignore the truths therein.
The major problem these days and in this age is that we often tie our purpose to money. Hence, if our potentials don’t look like it will fetch us quick fortune, we are quick to neglect it and follow a path with no fulfillment (unknown to us).
A phenomenon i believe is well captured as “Racing on a treadmill with no progress/destination”
Thank you Adams, eternity will favour you for this.
Great! There is a purpose for which we are on earth. What’s the point in living beyond 30 if you haven’t discovered it by then and you don’t have plans? My opinion sha o 🙂
Sorry, meant to write and you don’t have plans to
Lol Chantal. I totally feel you. However there is a saying by Jean de La Fontaine, “A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” Thanks for reading. And more thanks for sharing your thoughts.