“We are more apt to drain our creative springs than to refill them. With our pitchers, we attempt sometimes to water a field, not a garden.” –Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Contrary to immediate instinct, we are often better served as humans to self-impose limits. An easy illustration of this is marriage. Society tells us commitment is unnecessary and illogical. Why limit oneself? Better to maintain freedom, to keep options open. However, most people still understand (at least intuitively) that this approach misses the far higher potential that can ensue when one makes a willing commitment to another. Not only does it free the individuals to focus more fully on each other and create true intimacy, it also frees them from the alternative of being subject to one’s preferences, emotions and circumstances that are always changing.

The concept of self-imposed limits can be applied to anything, starting with our attention. Modern luxuries beget leisure time that begets stimulation. It has become normal, even glorified, to expect maximum convenience out of life and bite off more than we can properly chew. We run unnecessary errands, we perpetually check our phones, we accumulate excess. A life without purpose logically creeps in, and then we complain of isolation and burnout.

What we neglect to see is that it is only logical for isolation and burnout to ensue. A life without purpose goes against our nature. It is not what we were created for. Our eyes weren’t created to look at computer screens. Our hands weren’t created to be idle. Our souls weren’t created to strive for worldly status. Naturally I feel exhausted and unfulfilled when I chase these things.

It begs the question, what were we created for? We were created, first and foremost, to be in a loving relationship. We were created to walk in wisdom. To use our hands and intellect to care for the gardens of our hearts and lives. To appreciate beauty, and to take part in the perpetuation of that beauty. To be one thread in a larger whole. What happens when we live in accordance with our purpose, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem? What happens is a wholeness, a fullness – what the Psalmist captured with the simple phrase, ‘my cup runneth over.’

Let us remember the importance of setting limits on our attention in order to walk in love and wisdom, for this is our wellspring and source of replenishment. And let us use the precious gift of our cups not to pointlessly water a field, but rather to intentionally nourish the gardens of our immediate hearts and lives. For that is what we are created to do.

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