Purpose Requires Context

I have a teleconference in five minutes and my cell phone battery is blinking a red 4%. How is this possible? There’s no way I have used my phone enough to drain the battery this low. The airport is busy and I need to walk to my gate as I do this call. Thank goodness I have my portable charger in my bag so I can keep moving towards my gate.

I reach into the front pocket of my backpack and immediately find the battery then quickly unzip the left side, reach in and pull out a handful of cords and connectors. Gosh, where did I get all of these? I don’t even know what some of these are for. Why do I have so many of these cords stuffed in here? And where is my battery connector? Here it is!!! Yeah!

Most of the cords I yanked out of my bag had no purpose because I had no context for what they connected to or why I kept them, but a “spring cleaning” occurred as soon as I got home.

It’s so easy for us to stuff our lives and careers full of things that we forget their original purpose. I also find it easy to lose sight of my purpose and find myself not making decisions I’m happy with or that make a difference. I heard Andy Stanley say there is no purpose outside of context and connection. If you have no context, then you have no purpose.

Too often, we waste precious moments because we do not remember our purpose and the context of what we are doing.

Great questions for us to reflect on every week: What is my purpose? What am I connected to? What is the context of what I am doing this week? Am I overrun with useless cords, or am I connecting to provide energy for my purpose? Who am I serving and supporting?

I know my purpose is serving the partner group as we build the #WiseFirm together—a firm built on the foundation of We & Service. Knowing my purpose helps me make decisions that honor our core values of God, Family, Care, Love and Service. #beBetter