One of the bazillion reasons I am falling in love with the practice of fixing my eyes on the eternal is because it is full of purpose. FULL of purpose. And aren’t our hearts burning for purpose? Rich and satisfying purpose. Purpose that can be found in pain, in the mundane, purpose inciting passion, purpose that is worthy of our blink of an eye lives in an adventurous, full-body flavored sort of way. An offering with this kind of purpose is invaluable. It demands much — but it gives everything.
And we are a purpose-starved people.
Gallup published a report on the 2017 “well-being” ranks within the US. It was found that there were “sharp declines in overall well-being, which were driven by drops in purpose and social well-being metrics.” And when we’re currently the richest and most prosperous nation in the word, this might indicate that, perhaps, dolla bills aren’t cutting it in our souls. It “marked the largest year-over-year decline since the index began in 2008.
Many years before this, in 2002, Rick Warren authored; The Purpose Driven Life. It sold 60 million copies. And counting. We want our lives to matter.
So we search for it. Because we are hardwired to long for meaning in what we do. We are naturally inclined to feel strongly about something, and what we believe about eternal things will directly impact what we pour our lives out into. It’s a beautiful thing, because God gave us this drive, this soulful longing to matter in order to underscore the fact that we are eternal beings made for eternal things.
“He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” — Ecclesiastes 3:11
Without clear view of our purpose, we get petty when our limits are pushed.
We start glorifying the temporary. We start reacting strongly to stuff that shouldn’t carry so much weight. Without an eternal perspective, not only do we get petty, we pick priorities poorly. Because without eternity in mind, now is all that matters, and the temporary gets glorified when it has no authority or power to satisfy an eternal beckoning.
For the sake of our hearts, I want to be clear about something. We will assign purpose somewhere. We will embrace a cause that clings to our hearts upon wiggling its way in. Voices will draw us, and they draw well. If that purpose is not eternal, if it does not include knowing God and loving people, it is temporary and fleeting and will not give back to our souls what it asks from us over and over and over again. The created cannot satisfy like the creator. It just can’t. And if we try to make it, we will end up wounded, tired, striving and unfulfilled. Or perhaps, at our best, just busy trying to secure a fix that will give us the satisfaction we wish lasted longer.
There are only two things that are qualified as eternal. TWO things. What we do with those things affect the trajectory of our forevers. It defines our mission and distinguishes whether our lives are impactful. Let’s go there. Because this kind of clarity offers what our hearts are burning for. It offers adventure and incentive behind every mundane and legendary move we make. There are only two things…