Are You Building a Life on Pressure or Purpose?

I saw something on social media a few weeks ago that really struck a chord: She realized she was living a life built on pressure instead of purpose.

Does that resonate with you? 

In the last couple months, I’ve found myself breaking down a few different times from the pressure of others at work, in a volunteer meeting, and at home. 

Have you ever been in a situation where everyone else is saying they don’t have time or capacity to do something and then it falls to you? Those are the situations that are repeatedly stirring in my life. Everyone else can’t do it. So it becomes mine.

We have become a culture that likes to put a giant load on other people. So easily we can become the sacrificial lamb if we are a person that is oriented towards serving others while others establish their boundaries.

I was breaking down over the pressure I was feeling from so many different parts of my life. I realized that what I had discerned as my purpose for this time of my life wasn’t even being lived out at this point. I was just falling deeper and deeper into what others wanted of me and the pressures of work, volunteering, and meeting the expectations of my loved ones. It felt like a prison of others’ expectations that I couldn’t escape from.

I will try to claw my way out of that type of life towards my bigger purpose, but let this experience be a lesson for us: As we try to live lives of fruitfulness and discern what God is calling us to, let’s be careful to not create a life built on pressure, but rather purpose.