Meaning, Purpose, and Resilience
After many mornings of crossing my frost covered lawn, feeling the grass crunch under my feet, I never cease to be amazed at how quickly the grass recovers when the sun hits it. The word for this is ‘resilience’, or the ability to bounce back from a difficult situation.
As a community, we’ve been through a few difficult situations in recent years - drought, bushfires, coronavirus, floods... A lot of factors contribute to our ability to bounce back, but one is having a clear sense of purpose and meaning. By purpose, I mean a sense of why we are here, what our existence is intended to achieve, and what kind of mark we want to leave in the world. Purpose is expressed through the goals, conscious and unconscious, that we set for ourselves. Meaning is found in the attribution of a unique and specific value, significance, and priority to these goals. Researchers suggest that our goals, while personally determined, are heavily influenced by the beliefs, values, and ideals of the society in which we live. However, these self-determined goals are also subject to disconfirmation by traumatic experiences and this, in turn, causes us significant distress.
I believe that there is another source of purpose that should feed into the mix, one that does not change and cannot be threatened by circumstances. These are the purposes that God has for each of us. God says, “I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). By what right does God develop plans and purposes for us? Because he created us. To described this, the bible uses the language of a potter working with clay. “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” (Romans 9:21). God’s purposes do not change and cannot be threatened by circumstances so they can make a vital contribution to our resilience if we take the time to discover what they are.
Neil Percival
As a community, we’ve been through a few difficult situations in recent years - drought, bushfires, coronavirus, floods... A lot of factors contribute to our ability to bounce back, but one is having a clear sense of purpose and meaning. By purpose, I mean a sense of why we are here, what our existence is intended to achieve, and what kind of mark we want to leave in the world. Purpose is expressed through the goals, conscious and unconscious, that we set for ourselves. Meaning is found in the attribution of a unique and specific value, significance, and priority to these goals. Researchers suggest that our goals, while personally determined, are heavily influenced by the beliefs, values, and ideals of the society in which we live. However, these self-determined goals are also subject to disconfirmation by traumatic experiences and this, in turn, causes us significant distress.
I believe that there is another source of purpose that should feed into the mix, one that does not change and cannot be threatened by circumstances. These are the purposes that God has for each of us. God says, “I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). By what right does God develop plans and purposes for us? Because he created us. To described this, the bible uses the language of a potter working with clay. “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” (Romans 9:21). God’s purposes do not change and cannot be threatened by circumstances so they can make a vital contribution to our resilience if we take the time to discover what they are.
Neil Percival