Purpose and Paying Attention

Scripture — Matthew 6:22-23 (NRSV)

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Devotion

There is no shortage of advice if you’re looking for purpose in life. I’ve read at least a dozen books on the topic, including Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life, one of the bestselling non-fiction books of all time with over 50,000,000 copies sold. According to my recent Amazon search of books addressing “purpose in life,” there are over 30,000 possibilities. As I said, no shortage of advice here!

The books I’ve read tend to propose one way for you to figure out your purpose in life. Often, the suggested way is quite sensible. Though, as I’ve read broadly, and as I’ve spoken with dozens of people over the years concerning their purpose and how they discerned it, I’m struck by the fact that there really isn’t one road to finding your particular purpose in life. For example, while some people seem to have a deep, intuitive, almost innate sense of their life’s purpose, others spend years trying to clarify their purpose. Some folks seem to “just know” what it is. Others spend years trying to find their purpose through reading, reflecting, praying, experimenting, talking with others, feeling frustrated, and so forth.

Ironically, given what I’ve just said, I’m going to propose what I believe to be one particularly helpful way for you to discern your purpose in life. Yet, my “way” allows for and even encourages the kind of diversity of purpose-discerning paths I mentioned in the previous paragraph. It assumes that different people will come to know their purpose in different ways. But what they all have in common, I believe, is paying attention. Just about everyone I know with a strong sense of purpose in life has come to this conviction by paying attention to something, or as is usually the case, to a distinctive combination of “somethings.”

My fellow Life for Leaders writer Uli Chi has lots to say about paying attention in his wonderful book, The Wise Leader. I’d like to quote several paragraphs from his chapter, “Wisdom and the World Around Us”:

We live in a media-filled world that seeks our attention. Social media measures its success by the number of eyeballs captured. Attention has become the currency of our digital age. Our attention—or lack thereof—drives advertising, product placement, and even product design. Where our eyes go, modern marketing follows. And consequently, modern marketing desires to determine where our eyes should go.

_What we pay attention to matters_. What we look at—and how we “see” what we look at—shapes who we become. Jesus knew this. As he memorably said in the Sermon on the Mount, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matt. 6:22–23).

As Jesus taught in that sermon, our “eye,” our “heart,” and our “treasure” all affect one another. What we focus on, what we desire, and what we value are all deeply interconnected. But our eyes are critical. Our attention requires our attention (pp. 51-52).

“Our attention requires our attention.” Yes, indeed. And that’s what I intend to do in future devotions.

When it comes to paying attention and purpose, one of the most common pieces of advice offered in books and graduation speeches is “Pay attention to your passion.” If you do, the story goes, then your purpose will become clear. Now, I do believe your passion can make a difference when it comes to your purpose, but I’m not convinced that the best way to discern your purpose is by paying attention to your passion. I’ll have more to say about this in tomorrow’s devotion.

For now, I want to underscore the importance of paying attention and suggest that there are several things to which we ought to pay attention if we’re going to receive, clarify, craft, and live our purpose in life. As Uli Chi writes in The Wise Leader, “What we pay attention to matters. What we look at – and how we “see” what we look at – shapes who we become.” In future devotions, I will suggest what you should look at if you want to know and live your true purpose in life.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Store Your Treasure in Heaven, Not on Earth (Matthew 6:19-34).