ACHIEVING MEANING AND PURPOSE

Hello Everyone

Today, I would like to offer an alternative vision of society from the one that seems to dominate our book shops, media, social media, art, sport, music . . . well, literally all aspects of our culture. A whole industry has grown up around self-awareness, finding the perfect path to happiness, and achieving your goals. There are even ME days. Countless web sites are devoted to the pressing need to set aside a day for yourself, a day which appears to have elevated its urgency to the status of a human right. There are parents wrangling over whose turn it is to take care of their children, as if spending time with your children on Saturday and Sunday is some kind of inconvenience. And I’m not talking about parents who live in different households here!

Everyone seems to be in a frenzy of expectation to depict their lives as a kind of secular nirvana. (Of course, one that doesn’t require the personal effort expected to achieve such a hopeful aspiration for those travelling along Siddhartha Gautama’s Eight-fold Path!) This is aided and abetted by the carefully curated stories of the high points of our lives littered through social media, in an attempt to reinforce the self-preoccupied delusions of grandeur that motivate our snippets of success, proudly and permanently recorded in the public stratosphere. That sounds very cynical. I have no doubt there are people out there who are using social media as a fantastic tool for wide-spread families and friends to maintain a close link. Please forgive my stereotyping!

Nevertheless, it begs the question: What truly gives our lives meaning and purpose? What leads to a deep-seated satisfaction with life, in the midst of all its challenging, messy realities? Are we even capable of creating meaning and purpose in our lives? The kind of meaning and purpose that enables us to live without needing to stoke our egos on a steady diet of experience envy on social media, or stroke our egos with self-glorifying stories of our own to cut others to the quick and send them rushing to outdo our latest gustatory experience, or stupendous night at the theatre. (The latest hoo-ha over Taylor Swift’s concert is a perfect example. What values are we teaching an eight-year-old, when we are willing to pay thousands of dollars to fly them interstate for a three-hour concert? Look up the ‘Picture to Burn’ lyrics. Are they the attitudes we want our tweens to learn?)

I would like to posit a different perspective on this question of what gives our lives meaning and purpose.

We discover it, when it is revealed to us through the work of the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus, as recorded in the bible and other historical texts (such as Josephus and Tacitus). When we make that discovery, life becomes a continual adventure seeking the will and wisdom of God. Life becomes a series of revelations of the character of God and his desire for us to live abundant lives. Moreover, his actions are characterized by love and selflessness. It is so refreshing! He invites us into this kind of relationship both with him and each other. It’s like wading into a cool ocean on a sizzling summer day. We begin to float, buoyed by the power supporting us, as the burdens that are clinging to us feel lighter. Like a mighty ocean, God’s presence helps to carry those things that are weighing us down and removes the heaviness we felt as we shouldered them alone.

I believe it is not self-awareness we need to seek; it is awareness of God and others. Ironically, only then do we experience our true selves ─ the ones made in the image of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who live in perfect harmony. When we are living in harmony with God and others, we are fulfilling this trinity of harmonious unity based on the character of our Triune God and his creative intention in making us.

God is relational. Only when the individual chooses to live in relationship with God and others, does that person reflect the imago Dei offered to us in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is what sets us free from our ambitious and prideful ego. And it sets us free from the despair we can fall into in the face of our own failings to live up to our ego’s expectations. It sets us free from becoming disillusioned by the external circumstances which undermine our ambitions, leading to the existential angst identified by the Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, in the nineteenth century. It is sad to realise that this kind of anxiety is a commonplace state of mind today, even in children, as we move further and further from God and his kingdom of self-sacrificing love, grace and righteousness. Instead, many embrace the extreme individualism of the out-of-control, self-absorbed and aggressive individuals who resent anyone who limits their power and ambition. To increase their individual power, they join together in the hope of overlaying their tribal aggression with a veil of nobility by presenting themselves as fighting for a common cause.

A SILENT PROTEST REMAINING AFTER THE PROTECT PROTEST RALLY AT THE SA PARLIAMENT, PROTESTING THE NEW LAW THAT PROTECTS SA CITIZENS FROM DISRUPTIVE AND OBSTRUCTIVE PROTESTS IN PUBLIC SPACES. THE AIM OF THE LAW IS TO STOP VITAL SAFETY SERVICES BEING MISDIRECTED TO DEAL WITH PROTESTORS.

However, the despair of the dissatisfied egoist has no relief other than railing against their situation which only creates further angst. In contrast, the despair of discovering the chasm between us and God’s holiness results in our salvation through responding to Jesus’ self-sacrifice and so overcoming our despair of never being able to achieve righteousness through our own efforts. We are not left flailing in our failing ambitions and wallowing in self-pity. Instead, we are drawn into his eternal kingdom of light, love, peace and justice where the ego experiences the pleasures and peace of being other-centred. Paradoxically, just as Jesus’ suffering on the cross was actually a revelation of his great strength, so our denying our ego and its prideful ambition and becoming other-centred is, ironically, the path to our true selves. The path to knowing our purpose and our place. To knowing where we belong and why. To knowing where we are going and with whom. This is true freedom. It is entirely independent of our life’s circumstances. There are increasing attempts to compartmentalize human beings into mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and social beings. Unfortunately, the corollary to this is the breaking down of society into tribes that destabilize the wholeness of humanity and society, as they fight for more attention and a bigger piece of the pie. Such battles can only undermine God’s plans for us to be citizens of his kingdom, characterized by unity and harmony through an attitude of other-centred love, manifested in actions that acknowledge God as our Creator, Saviour, Sustainer and Lord.

This summarizes the foundation that gives my life meaning and purpose and upon which my values and choices are made. Sadly, I must confess that I don’t always put God and others first. But each day is a new opportunity to bring my words and actions into closer harmony with the goodness and loving-kindness of God. My very best wishes as you work out what gives your life meaning and purpose.

Julie