Purpose

Squirrel!

It is no secret, for those paying attention, that one of the biggest voids in today’s society is a void of purpose among the younger generation. In my arrival to the political scene, shortly after college graduation, I quickly made the observation that the issues in our society that draw the most attention are rather trivial compared to past generations, but that the significance placed on them cannot be simply wished away by pointing out their irrelevance.

 Just like the scene inside a confused mind, it does not matter how far reality is from one’s understanding if the mind is determined to take extreme action. We are all forced to address those concerns, whether or not we believe them to be credible.(in short, this is the “your/my truth” issue) As a well-known comedian puts it, when a child believes that their world is ending when they lose a balloon, it doesn’t matter that, as an adult, we don’t believe that to be the end of the world and know that the child will be just fine once they find the next distraction. In that moment, that child believes they’ve lost their sole source for happiness and we can make matters worse unless we take the time to comfort that child.

Now, comforting does not mean to play into the child’s delusion and can often call upon instances of ‘tough love’ if the situation rises to that level, but to completely discard their feelings, or scold them for having them, can be counter-productive, depending on how the child reacts. It seems as though this is what we have done with young people whom have merely been listening when the older generations speak. For so long, elders have spent a great deal of time pontificating, theorizing, and declaring lofty truths that cut against the wisdom of their prior generations in an effort to establish themselves as kings of their own domain;  sovereign individuals in control of their own lives, trying to escape their sense of obligation and dependence. I think these were mostly done for internal purposes, as a cathartic means of justifying their internal desires and escaping the consequences of those desires. 

Unfortunately, for us, the younger generations have picked up these exercises of self-justification and run with them. No longer is there a single internal desire that cannot only be justified but championed; celebrated as an expression of individuality and “healthy” expression. Where the initial message was shared as a means of dealing with guilt, it is now received as a directive with widespread acceptance. It doesn’t merely blur the lines of right and wrong, it throws the entire concept overboard. When interpreted in the right way, this could have a profound impact on the notion of faith. But when taken wrong, it results in the loss of meaning, and therefore, purpose. 

To simplify all my babbling: We try to justify our bad behavior by trying to prove that, not only is it not bad, it is praise-worthy. 

That is where my mini-epiphany came from, and why it took 30 years to wade through the different paths of self-indulgence to finally come to the place where I had to accept the fact that I was lacking purpose. I began to ‘re-invest’ in Christianity, initially, as a pragmatic decision. As someone that became obsessed with reason, I viewed the historical good that can be credited to Christianity as a reason to try and understand as much as I could about it and pull the truth out of it. Just like the newest fad-diet, “well, I’ve tried all this other stuff with little to no success, I might as well see why Christians always seem so put-together”. Once I made this decision, it became evident, pretty quickly, that I wasn’t the one seeking out Christianity, it was calling on me, and had been most of my life. 

Now yes, this would be the moment when, reading it 5 years ago, one could actually hear my eyes roll. And I will have to ask the reader for some lenience on that topic for now. 

The epiphany was this: ‘We all serve a God, whether we believe that or not.’ Sure, you might call this a relatively trivial “epiphany”. It’s not particularly profound or will come as a surprising new piece of information to most. But knowing the final answer to an Algebra question is not the same as knowing how to get to that answer. 

When it comes to our lives, especially those of us questioning purpose, we may feel like we’re just hanging out in the corner just trying to be good and get by. We might not be able to identify the tent poles in our lives. Those “priorities” or “ambitions” that we always hear professional speakers talking about. The “big rocks” so to speak. When asked what we value most in our lives, I imagine most would start out by listing their family and friends(and maybe a pet or 10). It’s everything after that that would vary drastically among people; careers, hobbies, projects, experiences, whatever it might be that motivates us. All of these things, including HOW we value our family and friends, point to the God we serve. And what we say can often contradict reality. 

For an obvious example; if I were to say that healthy living were one of my “big rocks,” yet I rarely get to the gym, but never miss a new episode of The Big Bang, well the God that I’m serving, in that scenario, is Family Guy, not exercise. Despite what I would say means more to me. A less obvious example might be if I were to say that I believe God has a good plan for me, yet I rarely consult him on the subject. Instead, he gets squeezed in when I’m feeling down or grateful. In that scenario, the God I’m serving is myself, even if I claim to serve the Lord. 

We all have Gods that we serve; Television, food, booze, sports, vanity, gossip, grievance, family, pets, work, pleasure, fear, anger. Surely, you noticed the very subtle progression of that list from things we all can easily identify, to things that maybe we wouldn’t consider to be ‘bad’ to high-level emotions. Among the many definitions of sin is the putting of self before God. The ‘misalignment’ of ourselves and God in our lives. When we get things out of order, even things like family and work, we sin. I won’t spend much time on ‘sin severity’ other than to suggest, to those inclined to be ok buying into the “some sins are better than others” approach, this one thing. Might the little sin be more devastating than the big sin? The little one occurs without much fanfare which makes it easier. Which means it can more easily become a habit. And never does the little sin stay a little sin. The big sin gets attention. It hurts someone or something. There is immediate feedback to which we either accept or ignore. Either way, it’s a quicker trip to the destination than the frequent little sins, right? Meh. Sounds kinda hokey to me. Just a thought. I’m sure it’s already been had, debated, de-bunked, re-bunked, and filed away somewhere.

Returning to the Gods we serve. I always think about this characterization when I read the old testament. Any time I read about a certain tribe or city of people serving other Gods, I always wonder “what if he didn’t mean physical statues or full-fledged deities?” What if he meant it the same way we mean it today? What if he just meant these folks were just too busy obsessed with sex, or drinking all the time, or trying to get rich, instead of worshipping him? What if the Golden Calf was actually a building they all went in every day to gamble? Wouldn’t that me somethin? 

We’ve, clearly, veered off course. Purpose was the initial concern. I’ll have to get back to that another time. For now, I gotta re-remember what my big rocks are.