Purpose versus Being Alive

Our purpose, my purpose, your purpose ... there has been many conversations about purpose over the past few years. For the most part, they have been good conversations; they have helped me look beyond myself and beyond today. I find comfort in the fact that my life has meaning, that there is a design and a plan for this crazy, messy life. The part I can get bogged down in, is finding that purpose. For sometime, I was looking for a magic formula, or a certain event, person or cause that would yell 'purpose' to me. Lately, I realize I have been trying to find my purpose by going the wrong way down a one-way street.

I started looking at it differently after reading this quote by theologian Howard Thurman ... "Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.” I had thought when I find my purpose then I would really come alive and find fulfillment in life ... but instead I need to come alive and then my life will be a life of purpose.

So, the focus shifted from finding my purpose (heavy and somber) to living life fully alive (energy and fun). I need to know me, to know what makes me come alive. I didn't create myself, but I was created by the One that created all things, so that is the place to start. The maker knows me better than I know myself, so I need to have ongoing conversations with him. I also need to give myself time to reflect on life, to understand fully what makes me be alive. I need to be willing to ... Be still and listen deeply for the truth that is carried on its winds - information about the past, wisdom about the present, and direction for the future. - Elizabeth Lesser

Each of us is different and what makes us fully alive will be as varied as the hues of color in the sky. The one area that is consistent with each of us is that to feel fully alive we need to “love the Lord God with all your passion, prayer, intelligence and energy and love others as well as you love yourself.”- Jesus

Dreams

This is so true ...

You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however. -Richard Bach

I think I have found that most times the word 'may' in the last sentence is actually the word 'will'. Purposeful, meaningful work (with boundaries) can actually be a gift of fulfillment we need, though we might not be aware of it.

Day by Day

I groaned as I headed to physical therapy - again. Following surgery on my foot, I was only two weeks into the process and the exercises were already tedious. 40 times left, 40 times right, up and down, around in circles - boring details of all the exercises that I needed to do day after day. Most of them felt insignificant and puny at the time and no outward change was evident. I wanted a strong ankle ASAP. I was not enjoying this day-by-day process.

Until it dawned on me - this was like my relationship with God. I want the result - having a strong connection to my creator and the change that can produce in my life. But too often, I am so busy looking for that result, I forget about the day-by-day choices that will produce the change I want.

While doing physical therapy, I could not see the muscles and tendons in my ankle gaining strength. Most days, when I finished, it did not feel any stronger than it did an hour earlier. Actually, often it felt tired and weak. I had to go by the knowledge of how the body works and what my therapist told me … these daily exercises would bring the strong ankle I desire.

It is much the same way with my connection to God; most times, I do not see anything happening in myself. While it can be peaceful and calm to read, pray, journal or be still … I am not holy when I finish. I am still a messy human. Nevertheless, I can choose to believe what God, my pastors and others I trust say. Day by day, choice by choice - renewal is happening in me.

Do not lose heart … inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Romans 4:16

Dare to Care

Dare to care

David Servan-Schreiber

It's Saturday night in the Paris métro. Two friends, Etienne and Sophie, are on their way to dinner. After sitting down in the crowded train, they discover the body of a homeless man curled up at their feet. How did he get there? How long has he been lying there? Is he dead? They look around: Everyone avoids looking at the body. Nobody has any idea how to handle this situation. Etienne and Sophie don’t know what to do either.

In a study done in the 1970s, young Christian seminarians were assigned to teach a course on the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37). To make sure they would be in a hurry just like the priest and the Levite in the Biblical story, who didn’t stop to help a man in need, the researchers gave them directions to their classrooms that allowed them only enough time to arrive at the appointed hour. They didn’t know a man would be lying in the stairwell just before they got to the classroom. More than half the seminarians didn’t stop to help him, not even to see if he was still alive. Evidently it was more important to carry God’s Word than to help the needy.

Indifference is easy to understand. Like these seminarians, like the priest and the Levite in the story, like the Good Samaritan himself, we are always on our way to something important: an appointment, a film, a job. We’re all caught up in a network of constraints that don’t easily yield to unforeseen circumstances, especially someone else’s unforeseen circumstances, especially those of someone we don’t know.
And who are we to step in and help? We aren’t “authorities”—paramedics, security guards or police. If we take an interest in a man like this, won’t we be getting involved in something that isn’t our business? And what can we do for him? We waver between impotence and impatience. This isn’t the first homeless person or the last in the subway. If this case is only a drop in the ocean of human misery, why be late to dinner?

Etienne stares at the body. An ear sticks out from the acrylic cap; the cheeks are pale and gaunt, the hands chapped and swollen. Etienne glances around. Nobody looks in his direction. A willful indifference seems to be shared by everyone else in the train car. Suddenly, without really knowing why, he leans over the cadaverous face, puts his hand on the motionless hand, speaks softly: “What’s wrong? Do you need help?” After a few moments, the man murmurs, without opening his eyes, “I haven’t eaten for three days. I don’t have any strength left.” He smells of alcohol. Etienne knows what happens when you drink on an empty stomach. “Are you dizzy? Would you like me to call someone?”

Already, the young man seated facing Etienne has stood up and leaned over. “Can I do something?” A woman approaches. “Why not help him get off at the next station? We could call someone there.” Now all eyes are on the poor man. Some people seem almost sorry not to have come to the aid of this symbol of human suffering, to have been paralyzed by all the arguments for remaining aloof that ran through their minds.

A number of passengers help carry the man onto the platform. Another passenger rings the bell to alert security that an ambulance is needed. Several people get off the train to make sure everything is handled properly. For these few minutes, the stricken man becomes a part of many people’s lives, the focus of their concerns. One girl offers him a cigarette; another talks with him. How did they shift so quickly from being totally indifferent to putting him at the centre of their attention?

Etienne and Sophie are late for dinner with their friends. But they arrive lighthearted, as if the man had given them a gift—the gift of feeling more human and, especially, of seeing that it takes little to awaken the humanity in everyone.

David Servan-Schreiber is a professor of psychiatry at universities in both France and the U.S., and author of the international bestseller Healing without Freud or Prozac.

Forgiveness

"Forgiveness does not change the past but it does enlarge the future."
- Source unknown

We moved in the past month, so I am not doing much writing, so enjoy the quotes.

Image of God

"We are created in the image of God, and he modeled for us a way of life that makes sense for how we are created. Here's how to dance the dance of life, he said: work, be creative, use your imagination, throw yourself into it, whether you are washing dishes, reading to your kids and running a household, or trading stocks, reading corporate reports, and running a business. …At the end of each day, stop. Take a rest, eat a good meal, get enough sleep, and refresh yourself. Take time to think about your day, to notice where God was in it and where you were blessed, and to say, "It's good." Then go back at it the next day. And after six days, take a whole day off. And say, "It's really good." Spend a whole day just pausing, just reflecting on how really good it is, and then start the dance again, at a sustainable pace." - Keri Wyatt Kent, author of Breathe

Little by Little

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee. -Marian Wright Edelman

Life on Earth

"Walking on the turning wheel of the earth, living under the ever-rotating sun, man expects a peaceful life." - Hazrat Inayat Khan

We need to find the balance of trying to live in peace in all we do, but yet know that because this is earth, total peace will not happen. Something is always changing, shifting and moving (hopefully) forward. Thankfully there is help to be found in feeling peaceful by talking to our Creator.

Florida

I spent five days in Florida last week ... I have a sister Rosene who has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair. My parents spent about two months at their house in Florida each winter. Rosene enjoys going down with them and spending a week or two there, but she doesn't like to stay the whole time. My friend, Mary and I flew down to fly home with her.
I had a cold while I was there, but we had great weather ... in the 70's and sunny.

My Mom and sister Rosene ... relaxing on a beach wheelchair

Myself and Mary

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This are some of my favorite photos I took while there ...

Growing

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure

nor this thing nor that

but simply growth.
We are happy when we are growing.

-William Butler Yeats

So many people walk around with a meaningless life.
They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things.

The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others,

devote yourself to your community around you,

and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

- Morrie Schwartz