Having a sense of purpose

 

Jane Clamp has been making space in her life for what is important
 

I’ve been having a bit of a clear-out this week. I didn’t mean to. Although I’d been saying to myself that I really should tidy up my work-room to avoid incurring injury as I navigated my way through it, I’d done nothing about it. On the day in question, I’d only intended to file a few papers and, perhaps, move a couple of larger objects off the floor. But what actually happened was that I removed pretty much all the contents of the room into the next-door space, and completely re-arranged the furniture
 
I have to say – even for an Interior Designer who, frankly, should have known better – this has been an absolute transformation. Once my son’s bedroom, it’s been used mostly as my workroom for making soft furnishings but, increasingly over the past few years, I’ve needed dedicated space to write. Until earlier this week, that space was the end of my sewing table, I squeezed in almost as an afterthought albeit with a nice view of the garden
 
It all set me thinking, as these things often do. So much is bandied around these days – especially on Christian social media sites – about ‘purpose’. A few years ago, it might have been expressed as ‘destiny’ and there were many songs sung in churches along those lines. I can get quite exhausted trying to be purposeful about everything. Quite honestly, sometimes the only intentional thing I want to do is put my feet up and have a sneaky mid-afternoon nap. But there is a great deal of wisdom in knowing what our purpose is
 
Some of us have a life-call that’s been there for as long as we can remember but, in my experience, a sense of purpose can undergo natural development as we age. Not all the little boys who want to be firemen or train drivers when they are five actually go on to become one. Sometimes our future hopes and plans are thwarted: an unexpected pregnancy, a job offer in another direction, an illness, a chance to study. Sometimes we just plain change our minds and opt to do something completely different. But, even when we might have got it all wrong, we can often look back and see a common thread which points to why we’re on the planet at this particular time
 
Because I know that at heart I’m a writer, I want to make space for that in my life and in my home. A sense of purpose will do that. It focuses our minds and hearts on what is truly important. Every day, there’s the call of a hundred different things on my time; but, sitting here at my newly positioned desk (yes, it transpired I had one all along, under those piles of papers) I have made space for what’s important and it feels very good indeed

this article also appeared on Network Norfolk
 

Jane Clamp is the author of Too Soon, a devotional on the subject of miscarriage, published by SPCK in August 2018. A member of the Association of Christian Writers, she writes for local and national radio. In her spare time she is an interior designer and musician
 

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