Tapping into Transcendent Purpose
September always seems to rev up our calendars. New routines. Full inboxes. The hum of “more, faster, now.” At Center for Spiritual Living our theme this month—Transcendent Purpose—comes as a holy counter-rhythm, inviting us to locate purpose not in our pace, but in our Presence.
We’re drawing from Tricia Hersey’s Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto. Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry (often called the “Nap Bishop”), frames rest as a spiritual, racial, and social-justice practice—an act of restoration and reclamation. The Nap Ministry has literally hosted communal nap experiences with mats, pillows, music, and guided meditation to support people caught in the grind. Why? Because rest disrupts the patterns that keep us cycling—whether that’s hustle culture (remember the old “rat race”?), the well-intentioned activities that done to excess can slowly empty the soul, or disrupting the capitalistic grind machine that keeps people stuck in a-day-late-and-a-dollar-short mentality.
I know the grind well. When I owned a tax practice, the rhythm began in December to “hit the ground running” in January. It felt productive—until March which rolled into April 15th, and by then I was spent. Eventually, I learned to intentionally rest after the deadline—to break the pattern, reset my pace, and return to work from center rather than grinding.
So, what does rest have to do with Transcendent Purpose?
Many of us were taught that purpose equals productivity—goals achieved, mountains moved, the next big thing. But when we pin purpose to outcomes “out there,” worthiness gets tangled up in performance “in here.” After the big achievement, we’re often strangely deflated, because the soul knows: transcendent purpose isn’t something we achieve; it’s actualizing our true self and the Presence within us.
Here’s the good news: You will never be more worthy than you are right now. Worth isn’t earned; it’s inherent. Transcendent purpose flows from that worthiness.
Let’s take a 10-second “proverbial nap” right now, find a quiet space, take a slow deep breath and say out loud:
I am worthy and valuable
Simply because I am.
Feel it? Can you sense a slight shift from hustle to flow. Disrupting the stress cycle and giving your sympathetic nervous system a break invites us to presence ourselves vs chasing all the “to do’s” on our list. We reconnect to ourself and that part of us that is always connected to true power – just waiting for us to invite It into our awareness.
That’s why I love this quote from Ernest Holmes, founder of Center for Spiritual Living and author of Science of Mind, it’s so potent – especially when we look at the entire statement: “There is a Power for Good, greater than you, and you can use it.” Folks often leave out the ‘greater than you part’ but that’s the part we draw our true power from. Yes it’s found within us but it’s so much more than us. Transcendent purpose springs from that inner well. It’s less about doing and more about being—and when doing flows naturally from being – we are working with true power.
Spiritual teacher Richard Rohr says it this way: “If we haven’t made contact with our true power—the Indwelling Spirit—we’ll seek power in all the wrong places. Power itself isn’t the problem; our definition is. If the Holy Spirit [our higher wisdom Self] is power, then real power is good, loving, and empowering, never the offspring of ambition or greed. If we fail to name this good meaning of power, we’ll settle for the bad—or we’ll avoid claiming our own powerful vocations altogether.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned, “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.”
When our power is rooted in Presence, love becomes actionable, and transcendent purpose becomes sustainable.
So, how do we live this—practically—when the calendar is loud and demanding?
Three gentle practices for the week:
- Sabbath-20. Put a 20-minute rest block on your calendar. Phone down. Eyes closed or softly open. Breathe. Do nothing “productive.” Let your nervous system learn that it is safe to rest.
- A one-line transcendent purpose affirmation. Try: “I rest in God; I embody loving power; my purpose unfolds with ease.” Repeat it whenever urgency spikes.
- Power-with, not power-over. Choose one relationship or task this week to do differently: more listening, more humility, more shared credit. That simple shift turns energy into servant-leadership.
Friends, my invitation is simple: rest. Be still and know that your transcendent purpose rises from your inherent worthiness—simply because you exist. There is more power available to you at the center of your being than anything you can harvest from the outer world. Disrupt the patterns that keep you drawing energy from outside yourself and tap that inner well, and let love guide you as you listen for the calling of transcendent purpose.
