Testing the Waters of Purpose

Scripture — Isaiah 43:1-2 (NRSV)

But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.

Devotion

Sometimes we think we need to have our purpose all figured out before we can begin to live into it. To be sure, this is how it works for some folks. But many of us get stuck because our expectations are out of sync with reality. We keep waiting for a kind of clarity that just doesn’t seem to come. So, we just sit and wait.

Now, I should be clear. Sometimes waiting upon the Lord is exactly the right thing to do. This is true even in times when God seems to be very slow. As it says in Isaiah, “Those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isa 40:31).

Yet there are also times when we need to step out in faith, seeking to live our purpose even before we are 100% clear about what it is. It can be better at times to try out different possibilities on the way to receiving, clarifying, crafting, and living your purpose. Dave Evans and Bill Burnett, co-authors of the bestselling book Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life, write: “Life design is an iterative [that is, frequently repetitive] process of prototypes and experimentation” (p. 25). As you work on your life’s purpose, try something new – a prototype – and see what happens. You learn from this experiment and then try something a little different, to see how that goes. And so on, and so on. Therefore, rather than sitting around trying to design your perfect life with a crystal-clear purpose, you may be better off taking small steps and experimenting with things to see what happens. In time, you’ll get more clarity about your purpose in life.

When it comes to experimenting your way forward, I’d encourage you to try relatively modest experiments, ones that don’t require giant investments of time, money, energy, or life disruption. You’re looking for experiments that can fail without major consequences for your life. For example, if you’re thinking about moving to a different part of the country, you might want to experiment with living in that new place before you move your whole life there.

This is exactly what a friend of mine did a few years ago. He thought he wanted to move from cold New England to warm Arizona. It might be more accurate to say, “often very hot Arizona.” But before moving, he spent a couple of months in Arizona. He discovered that he was glad to be away from the cold, that he didn’t mind the heat, and that he enjoyed the people he met in Arizona. So, he decided to make a permanent move and has been happy with that decision.

But I’ve known others who, upon retiring, decided to move away from their lifelong home to live near their children and grandchildren. They went through the hugely disruptive process of selling their home, downsizing, and moving hundreds of miles away from where they had lived for decades. They left behind their house, their church, and their longtime friends.

What seemed at first like a great move turned out to be more complicated, however. Their children were happy to have them around, but not around as much as the relocated parents had hoped. Moreover, they found it difficult to make new friends in their new community and missed the good friends they left behind. Their hopes for a new life didn’t pan out, so they ended up moving back to where they had once lived. How much better it would have been if they had been able to test the waters of a move first, rather than jumping headfirst into the deep end.

Speaking of waters, a beloved passage from Isaiah offers reassurance when we’re unsure of our purpose in life. The Lord says through the prophet:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

     I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

     and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you (Isa 43:1-2).

What God once promised to Israel is also promised to us. God will be with us in all of the turbulent “waters” of life. Thus, we do not need to be overwhelmed or afraid. If we have confidence in God’s presence, we can be emboldened to experiment with new things. We don’t have to wait for perfect clarity of purpose (as if there were such a thing) before we act. Rather, trusting in the Lord, we can find ways to put our new purpose into practice, which can help us further clarify and craft that purpose.

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: Servant at Work (Isaiah 40ff.).