From Necessity to Purpose
The Organic Journey to Maturity
There was a time when I thought I knew the right solution for the pressures of my life. Surrounded in obligations I fought to be free of them. However, the pressure of necessity was critical to a higher sense of purpose. When under necessity we do what is required because we are made to and not because we want to. I later discovered necessity was my tutor, given to guide me to purpose. Magically, purpose took over the job necessity had occupied. I knew then I had moved from necessity to purpose.
The Necessity Need
It has been said that ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. In other words, need compels us to do what otherwise would never happen. Like a lazy man driven by hunger, need can be a useful catalyst. Without it, some folks would never get anything done.
This is most certainly true of children! Without parental pressure, how many kids would brush their teeth, take baths or eat properly. Necessity foisted on them by loving parents is required while they remain children. Yet, necessity is only ever meant to be a temporary solution.
When a sense of purpose takes over, no other motivation or pressure is needed. Only when we are without purpose do we need something to act in its place.
This reality extends beyond children, applying also to most environments. The foreman or manager is assigned the job of applying the pressure of necessity. They remind others when to work, challenge the pace of the work and critique the quality of what is being done.
Where do they get their drive? Well, though it is not always the case, the ideal leader is one who is purpose-driven. The best leaders understand the task and are committed to seeing its completion. Even then we can be incentivized but the best pressure is when you love the results. In such a case you are no longer governed by a clock or a paycheck.
Necessity only comes into play when purpose is not able to move us.
Purpose & Maturity
The challenge is that purpose is a characteristic of maturity, making it elusive. In addition, it does not always come naturally. The million-dollar question is ‘How do we get from here to there?’ The answer is complicated but in short, it is formed under pressure. A sense of purpose is rooted in desires which are developed over time. Until then, necessity is by necessity necessary.
We should think of necessity as our tutor guiding us while purpose is under development.
This is to say, necessity leads to purpose, making it neither punitive nor cruel. This is despite what the immature may think or feel at the time. When we make children clean their rooms, it was not just so those things could get done. If it were only about doing the chore, it could be done more quickly and efficiently by adults.
The imposed behaviour we put on children is not slavery, but the means of imparting a value system.
Children are assigned chores and duties with the expectation they will pick up more than their toys. Let me put it this way. At the start, they have little regard for cleanliness or order. They will probably try to avoid doing the job and when they do it, it will be done poorly. However, we continue to involve them in the process. We do it in hope!
In Hope
The hope of what exactly? That one day, they will appreciate the order they learned to create and do it of their own accord.
As any wise parent realizes, necessity is the scaffolding of future character. Disciplines initially done out of ‘necessity’ are like seeds. Though it may sometimes feel easier to do it ourselves, in time they will become cherished values.
Those of us who have witnessed the miraculous transformation know it works. It is a truly joyous and amazing transformation to watch your children morph into responsible adults. When they organically take responsibility to care for themselves and their surroundings, it is a particularly satisfying transition. What they once did by necessity they now do on purpose because they enjoy what is produced through their effort. Somehow they have come to value what we valued and no longer need persuasion.
Which brings us to the real point of this article. What is true of natural children is also true of spiritual children. Despite our intelligence and physical development, we are children before God and we need necessity. We need it far more than we realize.
God obliges because He is a good Father.
A Wayward Prayer
This all became clear to me when in a moment of frustration I prayed to win the lottery. It seemed like an obvious solution to my highly pressured predicament. We were busy raising kids and nurturing a fledgling ministry and were surrounded by frustrating challenges. A windfall of finances was something God could easily do to alleviate the pressure and I reminded Him regularly.
What I did not realize was that much of what I was doing came out of necessity and not the pure devotion I believed was mine. Necessity was the anchor God used to keep me grounded. A reality to which I was oblivious, and had anyone accused me of that, I would have argued vehemently.
However, one day, as I murmured about my circumstances and pleaded my case, He made it very clear. He did so by exposing my heart. What I saw put me in my place.
Central to my complaint was an assumption. I believed myself to be completely given to continuous sacrificial devotion; that the objectives in God’s heart were also fixed at my core and would result in unflinching focus.
As only God could, He showed me how this was not nearly the case. While in prayer I saw a picture unfold outlining a sequence of results, should I suddenly have several million dollars. It would have meant a house in Florida, a vacation here and there, a lot of golf and an overall lack of restraint resulting in an unfocused life. Wealth unleashed at that time would have left me spiralling.
Obviously ‘necessity’ was a driving force in my life in ways I never could have conceded. Much of what I did was fuelled by need and without it, I would have become unhinged. What a shock!
My Need for Need
I had drastically overestimated the nobility of my soul. I realized it was I who was unable to steward a windfall of wealth and not He who was unwilling to give it to me. Millions of dollars at my disposal would remove the restraint which kept me currently focused. The outcome would mean a complete loss of my destiny. Clearly, necessity helped push me forward and I still lacked a larger sense of purpose. In short, I had a need for need.
All the pressures, from writing, travelling and speaking, were honing a craft, essential to my journey and destiny. Without necessity, the urgency to do these things would not have been present. The result would have been constant delay and procrastination.
A financial windfall was not what I needed. What was now obvious was a little humiliating, but only because I had imagined myself as much more than what I was capable of at the time.
While I was committed to the Kingdom, the convenience of money would remove the impetus God was using to move me forward. He is a good God!
Thankfully this was a temporary fix.
Necessity to Purpose
Recently it became clear that something had formed deep inside me. Again, in a split second, the Holy Spirit showed me how His desire for His people was now mine. I was organically occupied with the things that occupy God without the aid of duty or anything connected to myself.
Just like how I saw my child prizing order, I now knew that I loved what He loved. Necessity was no longer the primary governing force in my life. The tutor that once ‘supervised’ me had been replaced. This is God’s intention for all His children.
If we persist there comes a moment when the priorities of God emerge as our own. When without the promise of reward or threat of loss, we are moved to love what God loves. Somewhere deep within our hearts, a merger takes place and we are one with Him in a manner we could never honestly say before. Like it was said of Jesus it can be said of us.
“You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”
