Purpose is a tangible thing. It is worth defining for every intention and action. It is the simple ‘why’ of an action. You could call it your reason for an action or inaction, as the case may be. Why do you knot a tie to work every day? Why do you even do the work you do? What is the reason for that new friendship you’re looking at building? You want to start a new business, to what end? What is the essence of that race you’re running? The answers to these questions are pointers to purpose.

It suffices to say that purpose is a motivation for those who define it for every step of their carriage. It saves you so much headache when you are purpose driven. It becomes the mark by which you measure your actions and effort at the things you do alongside the result that comes to you.

I quite think that children have a beautiful sense of purpose even though they do not yet know how to define it tangibly. A child will cry for mistakenly stepping on a snail and crushing its shell because that child believes life is meant to be lived and the snail has now been deprived of that ability to live. That is being purpose driven. A child will insist that her homework be done as her teacher instructed; any other method does not likely matter to her. She simply believes, sometimes, that her teacher’s opinions and instructions are all she needs, and she keeps to them just so as to arrive at the expected result. That also points to a purpose driven life – the purpose of instructions.

How then does this pursuit of purpose wane out in the child in the course of growth? This sense of purpose goes silent in the child through various means. First, the response of the people around them when they make curious and expressive statements that show that they disagree with or do not even allow the child to express herself can ultimately shut the child up for years. When children are consistently shunned for being expressive of their thought processes they curl back inwards and become quiet creatures (losing that drive for purpose). They grow into becoming people who do or say the things that would not get them shunned. So, they lose that initial sense of purpose and just play by whatever appeals to others around them.

Secondly, children do not hear people talk about purpose so much as they grow. They may come across the word while they are preparing for spelling bees or having dictation classes in school and that’s all. Their initial sense of purpose is not backed up by consistent external information and, eventually, they lose it.

I could go on to give you a third but, this is getting too long already. Watch out for the next read. But till then, recognise that a purpose driven life ought to be the focus of every individual seeking to make a mark in life.

The people of Israel cried to God while in Egypt to save them, He heard and sent Moses. By His mighty outstretched arm, He brought them out of Egypt on the way to the Promised Land.

In Exodus 15, they went 3 days without water in the wilderness. At Marah they finally found water, but it was not drinkable. The Lord showed Moses a tree, he cast it in, and the water became sweet. What an adventure!

However, in Exodus 16, right after Elim, they hit a spot and Adventure Fatigue surfaced. They cried out to Moses. ‘We would have preferred remaining in Egypt around our meat pots, they said. God’s response, I will send you Manna and I will test you in the process.

Dear friend, Adventure Fatigue can happen to the best of us. But when it does, here are a few things to consider.

1. Tell God how you feel.
2. Be reminded that because the journey is God’s, the plan will be His too.
3. If your last season were all that, you would not have needed this one.
4. God is faithful and can stabilize you even in the eye of a storm.
5. He will provide and sustain.
6. No matter what, God is Good.

You see, adventure must be learnt, so even when you feel like the one you are in with God now does not work, hold on to Him. He is always up to and on to something.

From a fellow traveller that is adventure fatigued sometimes, the assurance is no matter how long it takes, we will arrive. Our God is too faithful and capable to fail.

According to Wikipedia, an anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current.

In essence, an anchor is built for the purpose and with the capacity to hold its attachment in a designated position for a period which could be temporary or permanent.

Regardless of what day of the week it is, for many of us, it is the continuation of an endless circle of racing around and tackling the same or lookalike challenges while calling it life. These days, we colour it cool and call it the hustle or the grind.

Don’t get me wrong, work is good and working hard is great too, because as a matter of spiritual, and secular fact, there is dignity in labour. But the work we do shouldn’t be whatever comes; it should be the result of a deliberate, informed, and strategic choice. Otherwise, what one has without this deliberateness is void of dignity and largely confusing. And this is a principle that applies beyond physical work and reaches the borders of our choices in marriage, friendships, choice of profession, books we read, places we go…. the list is endless really.

It is convenient to get up daily and “live”. But activity does not equal productivity many times. For all the work you do, you deserve to have a life that is steady and rewarding. You also owe it to yourself to be deliberate about your actions. Hence the question, what is your anchor? Why do you do the things you do? How did you come about the path you walk? Before you chose your present journey (maybe it’s a journey you’re about to decide on), what do you see? What holds you in place? Or are you even ever held in place by anything?

It is not okay for you to be tossed in every direction for every reason at every time. I cannot assure you that all your plans and dreams will turn out perfect but if you base your choices on a solidly built foundation, you will have many victories in life even when the body of water is pulling in all kinds of directions and sometimes when storms rage. We cannot afford to live life as it comes; not anymore. We must probe each decision we make and each direction we go to ascertain what our anchor is.

For some, their anchor is a person whom they hold in high esteem. A parent perhaps who has been there for them, so they make their choices based on this person’s every desire. For some, it’s a situation they hope to avoid or create, and they tirelessly pursue that. But the question is how sustainable are these, especially in the face of the storm?

In my over two decades of walking with God and interfacing with His Word, I have found His Word to be the most solid anchor anyone can ever have. Among other things, it is living, powerful and unchanging in the face of storms.

I invite you to trace your anchor to that source that doesn’t run dry and watch your life dance in the direction of greatness and contentment.