Life brings us plenty of strong winds and earth-shaking experiences; it confuses our compass, making it difficult to stay on what we believe to be the path for which we are intended; it disrupts our carefully calculated plans; it wears us down and tries to beat us into submission. Those are the trying times interspersed among those of joy, happiness, achievement and focus.
People seek certainty; life is uncertain. People seek purpose; life is distracting. People seek answers; life is full of questions. Come to find out, that which we seek can be found simply.
Psychologist Viktor Frankl explained in his epic book, Man’s Search for Meaning, that a sense of purpose is essential to survival through challenging times. He gained his insights while a prisoner in a concentration camp. He cited examples of near-term purpose such as his own, which was to survive prison so that he could be re-united with his wife. He also wanted to complete and publish a book that he had been working on at the time of his arrest. He referenced many examples of the correlation of purpose to survival from moment-to-moment, day-to-day and weeks on end. He developed logotherapy as an alternate method of psychotherapy that contrasts with Freudian or Jungian models.
A sense of purpose can get us through challenging times and provide focus during distracting ones, but what of the bigger question, “What is the purpose of my life? What is my purpose?” What if the answer is that we don’t know the answer, and that is okay? John Henry Newman wrote, “God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.” Through faith and humility comes the comfort and confidence of having purpose, unknown though it may be.
It is hard to know in the moment that the decisions we make and the actions we take align with our purpose and the purpose of our life. Jean-Pierre de Caussade wrote Abandonment to Divine Providence. The book is described thusly: “Its encouragement to ‘live in the present moment,’ accepting everyday obstacles with faith, humility, and love, has guided generations of believers to holiness and spiritual peace.”
There it is. The answers can be simple, though not always easy to implement. The grandest questions we have about life, the biggest challenges we face, the highest hurdles we tackle…are best addressed in moments strengthened by faith and empowered by purpose.