“Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.” ~ Lou Holtz
If we want to accomplish anything in life, we’ll come face to face with adversity. How we deal with adversity is connected directly to whether or not we’ve identified with a purpose.
Don’t Drift Through Life
In life, sometimes it’s hard to define what meaningful progress is. Over the course of time, we often find ourselves groping for truth, questioning the beliefs we were once so sure of. Day after day, we absorb countless blog posts, advertisements, movies, books, documentaries, and the like which all have one goal in mind: to grab our attention and sway our opinions. Then, we start to feel like we have little or nothing to stand on when it comes to our convictions until eventually, we come to this point where we’ve completely forgotten who we are and what matters most in life. Some people call this drifting through life, as opposed to charting an intentional course in order to reach a destination.
When we drift, we lack focus on the things that matter most, and as a result, adversity hits us especially hard. If we’re already lost, already alone without a plan or a purpose, we’re much more vulnerable to life’s setbacks and challenges. That’s why the key to overcoming adversity is to keep our eyes fixed on a purpose. When it comes to conflict, our purpose is the thing that will give our lives meaning and help us to overcome.
Finding Purpose
Many people will agree that our purpose in life is spiritual at its core. A good purpose must be strong, founded in goodness, love, service, and sacrifice. It should be eternal, much bigger than we are, and something which compels us to take part in making the world a better place. I could probably go on to write pages and pages about finding purpose in life, but the key here is that we need our purpose to have a spiritual foundation, and if do not know what it means to live a purposeful life, then our priority must be to discover just that, no matter what it takes.
But even when we feel like we’ve found our purpose, and seem confident that we have a grasp of what it looks like to live it out, the problem is how easily we humans forget things – even when it comes to the things that matter most in life. If we allow it, adversity will take us down until we hit rock bottom before we remember that we need to get focused on our purpose again. Even then, when we finally realize the need for taking the time to step back and reconsider our direction in life, we get caught up in this vicious cycle of distraction and “the daily grind” that keeps us from doing so. So if we know our purpose, but still find ourselves vulnerable to adversity, how do we win?
Stay Focused, Live it Out
The good new is that even though we’re forgetful, we’re fully capable of remaining fixated on a purpose if in our hearts it is a strong and compelling one. How do we know when our purpose is strong and compelling? Because having a real purpose should convict us, and as a result, our lives change as we start living it out through our words and actions. When we’re living it, we realize that in the end, our purpose is something we experience. It’s something we do.
Maybe you’re familiar with the story in the bible about the wise man who built his house on a rock? When adversity hit his home, it stood firm through the storm because it was built on a strong foundation. His neighbor, however, who built his house on the sand, lost everything and was washed away when adversity hit because he never really took the time to pursue a higher purpose. In this culture, day, and age, we’re probably more likely than ever to keep our heads down and just keep plowing without stopping to ask the most important questions in life. Lose focus, stop living it out, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly you end up like the man who built his house on the sand.
So what does it take to find our purpose when we’ve forgotten or we’re really just starting out? What does it take to stay focused on it, to build our lives upon it like the house on the rock? I don’t have all the answers but I do know this, that you have to fight for time and pull yourself away from your current routine if you want to make any kind of significant change. You have to commit your life to seeking it out. It’s not easy, nobody ever said it was. It’s a struggle, but we’re not struggling to find purpose and meaning in vain. What I’ve come to believe is that in actuality, God is using all of our previous failures and frustrations to help lay a strong foundation for us. With each failure, we’ve really just taken a step closer to our purpose and to who God has intended for us to become. And so we persevere.
It’s Time to Dig It Up
The world has so much to offer, but it has also dug a hole for us, for our hopes and our dreams. Adversity will bury us along with the things that matter most to us if we don’t have a purpose to stand on. Maybe you can imagine what it would be like to really pursue a higher purpose, to live true to yourself and to stand on something greater, but perhaps you buried that possibility long ago and covered it up with life’s hardship and everyone else’s expectations. You’ve been distracted, but now you find yourself standing beside that hole, nervous and afraid, wondering if you should dig the age-old purpose question back up or just get a move on with your day to day routine.
If this is you, I’m turning to you and handing you a shovel with this blog. It’s time to dig that purpose question up again and take the time to pursue it. When you’ve discovered your purpose and found a way to remain focused on it, everything else falls into place. All the sudden, you’ll have the strength not only face adversity but to pursue your goals and dreams with renewed courage and determination.
As a final note, this isn’t a blog about how I’ve figured everything out or arrived at my own destination. This is a blog about the journey where I strive for something greater than myself and grow in the process of getting there. More importantly, this blog is a place where I hope you can grow and take a step closer to where you’re going, too. If one person is helped or inspired to change their life or pursue their dreams by the reading of this blog, then I have succeeded.
Thanks for reading,
Kolton
