Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” He had a clear sense of purpose that guided his life. Clarity of purpose helps us to flourish as we live, not primarily for ourselves, but for something much larger than ourselves. When our lives are shaped by God’s purposes, we thrive even as we make a difference that matters in the world.
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
In yesterday’s Life for Leaders devotion, I began reflecting on a phrase in Luke 9:51: “he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” I noted that “to set one’s face” is a Hebrew idiom that literally means “to head in a certain direction” but implies strong intentionality or purpose. Jesus “set his face” to get to Jerusalem not only in the sense that he began traveling to that destination but also in that he knew his ultimate purpose lay there. In Jerusalem, he would fulfill his destiny by suffering and dying on the cross. I suggested that you and I also need to be guided by a clear purpose in life, most of all the purpose of Christ’s own mission.
Before we move on from Luke 9:51, I want to say a little more about living with purpose.
During the past couple of years, I have dug into lots of research related to older adulthood. Some of what I’ve found isn’t particularly surprising. If you take good care of your body, for example, you’ll tend to live both longer and healthier. But some of what I’ve discovered in my research isn’t what I expected. This includes the crucial importance of purpose for people in the third third of life.
Now, you might be thinking, of course, purpose matters for older adults. But I confess that I used to associate having a strong sense of purpose with something essential mainly in young adulthood or middle age. Folks in their twenties need to identify their life’s purpose. Folks in the 40s need to be guided by it. But folks in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and up . . . well, maybe they already fulfilled their life’s purpose and now they’re mainly enjoying the rest and recreation of retirement.
But, as it turns out, the purpose is absolutely crucial for flourishing in the third third of life. This isn’t just a hunch or a pet theory of some author with books in the airport. It is the result of serious academic research on the connection between purpose and thriving in older adulthood. For example, a study found that if a 90-year-old with a clear purpose in life develops Alzheimer’s disease, that person will probably keep functioning relatively well despite real pathological changes in the brain. Another meta-analysis of 10 studies involving more than 136,000 people found that having a purpose in life can lower your mortality risk by about 17 percent — about as much as following the famed Mediterranean diet. Moreover, writes Marta Zaraska in the Washington Post, “Research has shown that people who have high levels of purpose in life spend fewer nights in hospitals, have lower odds of developing diabetes, and over two times lower risk of dying from heart conditions than do others.” (Much more could be said about the value of purpose for successful aging. See my article, “Purpose is Key to Third Third Flourishing.”)
I find this research so striking and relevant to all ages. No matter whether you’re in your 20s, 40s, 60, 80s, or 100s, you will live a better and more productive life if you have a purpose if you have a clear reason for living beyond yourself. And, as I wrote in yesterday’s devotion, we who follow Jesus aren’t supposed to make up whatever purpose we want for our lives. Rather, we are given that purpose because of our relationship with the Lord. Fundamentally, we are to live into God’s purposes for ourselves, for his church, for the world, and for his kingdom. No matter what we do each day, no matter our jobs or family duties, no matter whether we’re just beginning a career or we’ve retired, our purpose is to live according to God’s purposes. If we do, as it turns out, not only will our lives make a difference that matters, not only will God be glorified, but also we will be more apt to live long healthy, and flourishing lives. Isn’t that something?!
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