*** SHOW NOTES (not fully edited or a transcript) ***

Lead:

Are you purposeful or driven? And what difference does it make?

Intro:

Can I be a bit transparent here? Today’s All Our Minds segment is going to look at the distinction between being purposeful and being driven…and that’s something I have utterly failed at in the past.

And I don’t think I’m alone.

So today we’ll look at this cultural phenomenon and ask a question or two that I hope will speak to your heart.

Yesterday we wrapped up the part of Romans where Paul’s arguing like a boss that every single human has sin that breaks our relationship with God. I like the way GK Chesterton, who was a brilliant and sometimes funny thinker put it in his book Orthodoxy:

Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.(1) ~ GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy

So yesterday we also heard that Jesus set us free, not to do what we want, but to do what we ought — that through His righteousness we’re instantly made clean and begin a journey of transformation.

Today we hear about our assurance of hope — kinda what this show is about! Jesus triumphed of our sin because He triumphed over all sin — and that’s a triumph of grace.

Oh, and I’ve teed up the next project from The Bible Project that covers Romans 5-8…just go to forthehope.org and search for episode #920.

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Bible:

Passage: Romans 5-6
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 44
Words: ~962

All Our Minds:

I love discovery. And while searching my powerful Bible study software that has a thousand books, magazines, and journals, I stumbled upon something entirely by accident. And it spoke to me, because I have suffered from this before.

So today, here’s a couple thoughts from a pastor, Mark Buchanan that he shared in Christianity Today back in 2006. He starts of by pointing out what the Bible says:

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Ps 90:12, ESV
Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. Ps 90:12, NLT

What God is saying that you need to keep time in perspective relative to timelessness. What pierced my heart, though was how Buchanan framed up the problem that we’ve absorbed from culture:

I write this at a time when the church talks much about being purpose-driven. This is a good thing, but we ought to practice a bit of holy cynicism about it. We should be a little uneasy about the pairing of purposefulness and drivenness. Something’s out of kilter there. Drivenness may awaken purpose or be a catalyst for purpose, but it rarely fulfills it: More often it jettisons it.
A common characteristic of driven people is that, at some point, they forget their purpose. They lose the point. The very reason they began something—embarked on a journey, undertook a project, waged a war, entered a profession, married a woman—erodes under the weight of their striving. Their original inspiration may have been noble. But driven too hard, it gets supplanted by greed for more, or dread of setback, or force of habit.
Drivenness erodes purposefulness.
The difference between living on purpose and being driven surfaces most clearly in what we do with time. The driven are fanatical time managers—time-mongers, time-herders, time-hoarders. Living on purpose requires skillful time management, true, but not the kind that turns brittle, that attempts to quarantine most of what makes life what it is: the mess, the surprises, the breakdowns, and the breakthroughs. Too much rigidity stifles purpose. I find that the more I try to manage time, the more anxious I get about it.
And the more prone I am to lose my purpose.
Truly purposeful people have an ironic secret: They manage time less and pay attention more. The most purposeful people I know rarely over-manage time, and when they do, it’s usually because they’re lapsing into drivenness, into a loss of purpose for which they overcompensate with mere busyness. No, the distinguishing mark of purposeful people is not time management.
It’s that they notice.(2)
~ Mark Buchanan

The bottom line

Let me be right up front. I am going to phrase a few questions like I’m asking them of you, but rest assured, I’ve asked all these of myself and sometimes in life not had very good answers.

Where do you get your recognition? The compliments you get at work? How many times has your boss or audience said, “How’s your heart?” or “Don’t you think you should spend less time trying to win my praise and more focused on the blessings that God’s purpose will bring?”
Are you going to trust yourself or the Creator of the cosmos who loves you so much He launched a rescue plan with you in mind? Isn’t deciding to trust self to decide what is good or evil exactly what Eve and then Adam did?
Do you welcome surprises? Do you have margin for interruptions? Or do you quarantine (if not even become resentful of people)?

I could tell you stories about speaking to thousands only to place too much value on their affirmation to fill me up when my marriage was failing. God said, “My grace is sufficient for you,” but I said “I got this.” I could tell you about lying in bed with tears streaming down my face because there was never enough money or time to go make more.

I don’t have it all figured out. But I can say that I’ve harvested the crops of both purposefulness and drivenness. Been at the top of that ladder only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall.

Wisdom:

Passage: Proverbs 19:18-32
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 13
Words: ~208

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

Thank you for supporting this ministry should you choose to use the Amazon affiliate links below.

(1) Gilbert K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy. (New York: John Lane Company, 1909), 24. (link, not to just this book, but to the whole collection which is really cheap. I recommend it, because it also has his poetry and some other awesome surprises).

(2) Mark Buchanan, “Schedule, Interrupted: Discovering God’s Time-Management Technique,” Christianity Today (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today International, 2006), 42–44. Note that Mark wrote this while promoting his book, The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath. I’ve not read it, but it gets killer reviews. link)

Not cited today, but one of my faves! —> Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008).

#920: Romans 5-6 | Purposeful or driven? | Proverbs 10:19-32