Transforming Desires and Discovering True Fulfillment

Aligning with God’s Purpose

Matthew Kelly, in his book Rediscover Catholicism, observes that God continually moves forward through His creation. Creation isn’t a one-time event, it’s a dynamic, ongoing reality unfolding in and around us. The question for each of us is clear: how do we move forward with Him?

To walk in step with God, we must find a rhythm and harmony that brings our lives into alignment with His. This harmony integrates two forces that often feel at odds, our human will and God’s will. Human will represents a fundamental aspect of the human person, enabling self-determination and moral choice. The Church describes it as an “outstanding manifestation of the divine image” within us, showing our unique capacity to make decisions based on reason and free will. In conjunction with God’s will, we need a well-formed conscience, an inner compass that directs us toward what is true, good, and aligned with God’s purpose.

The human will connects deeply with our intellect, allowing us to seek and love what is true and good. This capacity for free will, which participates in the divine Spirit’s light and power, enables us to direct ourselves toward our true good. It gives us the freedom to choose between good and evil, essential for moral discernment and personal responsibility. This freedom serves as a divine gift, empowering us to embrace communion with God or, conversely, to turn away from it, thereby shaping our moral and spiritual lives. The human will, then, is not only essential to our moral lives, but also a vital component of what it means to be created in the image of God, allowing us to know ourselves, possess ourselves, and enter into genuine relationships with others.

Throughout life, we all encounter moments where we feel stuck or unfulfilled. At those moments, we reach a point where we think, “Something has to change.” And here, we have a choice: to act on that desire for growth, or let it slip away. Acting on it means making an intentional decision and diving deeper into what holds us back.

This is where many people fall into a common trap. We might see behaviors or habits that need to change, and decide to replace them with something “better.” Someone who struggles with gambling, for instance, might try to replace the urge to gamble with reading or exercise. While this substitution might offer temporary relief, it fails to address the deeper issues, leaving them feeling unfulfilled and eventually returning to the old habit.

Why does this approach fall short? Because it merely swaps one habit for another without tackling the root causes, the attachments, wounds, or misplaced desires that drive these behaviors. Real transformation demands more than substitutions, it calls for a reordered conscience, a change of heart, and a genuine exchange of vices for virtues.

In the Christian tradition, this process means reordering our desires and cultivating virtues where vices once ruled. As Bishop Robert Barron says, “What Jesus gives us in the Sermon on the Mount, therefore, is that new law that would discipline our desires, our minds, and our bodies so as to make real happiness possible.” A well-formed conscience doesn’t just reject harmful habits, it reorients our desires toward God’s purpose. When we actively replace impatience with patience, greed with generosity, or resentment with forgiveness, we bring order to our inner lives and step forward with clarity and purpose.

But reordering isn’t only about addressing harmful habits. We also need to align our gifts and passions with God’s will. As C.S. Lewis observed, “If the thing we like doing is, in fact, the thing God wants us to do, yet that is not our reason for doing it, it remains a mere happy coincidence.” Lewis reminds us that our talents and interests are genuine gifts from God, meant to serve His purpose. However, if we pursue them only for personal satisfaction, we miss their deeper spiritual potential.

When we consciously reorient our gifts toward God, we transform them into powerful acts of service and worship. Loving and pursuing something because it aligns with God’s purpose makes it more than a source of personal enjoyment, it becomes a calling. Through this intentional alignment, we come to see our lives, talents, and desires as essential parts of God’s larger story.

This journey of reordering requires self-examination and openness. By inviting God to work within us, we aren’t merely changing behaviors or chasing our own desires, we are cultivating a new inner order, one that draws us dynamically into the rhythm of God’s life and purpose.

In retrospective, we see that this alignment, this embrace of virtues over vices, and God’s will over our own attachments, creates a life of deeper purpose and fulfillment. And it’s here that our unique passions, gifts, and even struggles stop creating a riot within us and begin contributing to God’s greater peace and purpose.