What’s Really Driving Your Life? How to Live with Purpose Instead of Fear
Reflections on Chapter Three of The Purpose Driven Life
After reflection on how intentionally we are designed, Chapter Three invites an even more confronting question: What is actually driving our lives?
Warren opens this chapter with a simple truth:
“Everyone’s life is driven by something.”
This statement sent me into a whirl of deep reflection. It’s one of those truths that sounds obvious until you pause long enough to examine what’s really sitting behind the wheel of your own life.
The word driven means having a compulsive or urgent quality, other meanings are determined to succeed: highly energetic and motivated; propelled or motivated by something- used in combination.
So, the question becomes:
What force is guiding your daily decisions?
What is controlling your priorities?
What is directing your path forward?
The answer may surprise you and it may not be what you hope it would be.
The Hidden Drivers We Don’t Admit To
Most of us would like to believe we’re driven by noble things; love, service, faith, or a desire to make a positive impact but honest self-examination often reveals more complicated motivations beneath the surface.
Warren identifies several common drivers that can quietly hijack our lives without us even realizing it.
Guilt can become a relentless taskmaster, pushing us to prove our worth through constant activity and people-pleasing. We live reactively, trying to make up for past mistakes rather than moving forward in the freedom we’ve already been offered.
Resentment and anger can shape our decisions long after the original wound occurs. We make choices fueled by proving someone wrong, protecting ourselves, or ensuring we’re never hurt that way again. As Job 5:2 warns, “Wrath kills the fool, and jealousy destroys the simple.”
Fear may be the most paralyzing driver of all. Fear of failure keeps us from taking risks. Fear of rejection prevents authentic connection. Fear of loss makes us cling tightly to what we have. As Warren notes, “Fear is a self-imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends you to be.”
Materialism promises security and happiness through accumulation, yet delivers neither. It rests on three false assumptions: that having more will make us happier, more important, and more secure. However, possessions provide only temporary satisfaction. True security is found only in what cannot be taken away, our relationship with God.
The need for approval can turn us into chameleons, constantly shifting to please whoever is watching. Trying to please everyone is exhausting and impossible. It often prevents us from ever discovering who we truly are or what we’re genuinely called to contribute.
The Cost of Aimless Living
When we are driven by these forces instead of by clear purpose, life becomes what Warren describes as “motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason.”
We stay busy but feel empty.
We accomplish tasks but lack fulfillment.
We go through the motions but miss the meaning.
Some people live lives of what Thoreau called “quiet desperation,'“ repeating familiar routines while feeling increasingly disconnected from significance. Others live lives of aimless distraction- jumping from one pursuit to another with no unifying thread or lasting satisfaction.
Both paths leave us feeling like life is trivial, petty, and pointless. Clear signals that we need to reconnect with God’s purposes in order to find the direction and fulfillment we’re longing for.
The Power of Purpose
Living with clear purpose changes everything.
When you know why you’re here and what you’re meant to contribute, three power shifts occur:
Purpose gives meaning to your life.
We were created for meaning. When we understand God’s purposes, even difficulty becomes bearable because it fits into a greater story.
Purpose simplifies your life.
Instead of trying to do everything, you can evaluate opportunities through one clarifying question:
Does this help me fulfill one of God’s purposes for my life?
This filter reduces stress, and overcommitment. A purposeful life is a selective life, and selectivity leads to effectiveness.
Purpose focuses your life.
Just as light becomes powerful when focused into a laser beam, a life becomes potent when centered on clear purpose. Focus transforms scattered energy into meaningful impact. There is nothing quite as powerful as a focused life.
Wrestling with Mixed Motivations
This where honest reflection gets uncomfortable.
When I ask myself what’s truly driving my life, the answer isn’t as clean as I’d like it to be.
Yes, God is the main driving force, but if I am being transparent fear knocks on the window every now and then asking for a chance to steer.
Since childhood, I’ve carried certain visions of a “good life”: a beautiful home, a loving family, financial security, the freedom to travel and give generously. These desires aren’t wrong but when fear attempts to enters, fear that these dreams won’t materialize, fear of scarcity, fear that God hasn’t heard my prayers, those dreams can quietly become competing drivers.
There’s tension between trusting God’s timing and actively pursuing the vision He’s placed in our hearts. Sometimes I wonder hwy blessings seem to come easily to some while remaining elusive for others. The fear that I’m missing the mark or not “doing enough” can become its own form of bondage.
Disciplined Trust
The solution isn’t to suppress our dreams or pretend we don’t want good things. It’s about getting our drivers in the right order.
When God’s purposes become our primary motivation, our other desires fall into their proper place. They become hopes we hold loosely rather than demands we cling to desperately.
This requires what I think of as disciplined trust- the daily choice to seek God’s will first, even when we can’t yet see how our personal dreams fit into His plan.
Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us that God’s plans are for our good, to give us hope and a future. The challenge is learning to live in the tension between divine timing and human longing, between surrendered trust and responsible action.
Two Questions That Change Everything
Warren closes this chapter with two questions that ultimately define our lives:
What did you do with the Son, Jesus Christ?
What did you do with what I gave you?
The first question determines where we’ll spend eternity.
The second determines how we’ll live in eternity.
Both bring us back to purpose. We are not here by accident, and we are not here merely to accumulate experiences or possessions. We are here to know God and to steward everything He’s entrusted to us in service of His purposes.
A Resource That Helps Me Reflect Honestly
As I’ve been working through these questions, The Purpose Driven Life gives me language and structure for examining what truly drives my decisions and desires.
If you desire this kind of reflection you find the book here!
Living on Purpose Is the Path to Peace
The promise is clear: alignment brings peace.
Not peace from the absence of uncertainty, but the deep peace that comes from knowing you’re living as you were designed to live.
Isaiah 26:3 offers this assurance:
“You, LORD, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in You.”
Perfect peace isn’t found in controlling outcomes or forcing timelines. It’s found in surrendering our grip while remaining focused on God’s purposes.
This is the tension where a purpose-driven life is formed, where surrender and focus meet, and where true peace begins.
This reflection is part of my 40-day journey through The Purpose Driven Life. You can explore the full series here → Purpose Driven Life Hub
