What It Means To Be Alive: Discovering A Purpose
Our beating hearts, curious minds, and yearning souls are fired by a hunger for purpose.
Much more than spectators, we are each here as active participants in a dramatic adventure. In fact, we are gifted players possessing talents and skills so unique unto ourselves that they can never be duplicated. Never. Not in all that came before, all that is, and all that may come in the future. Like the insuppressible Tigger, You’re the only one.
The problem is that we have a limited view of an unlimited horizon. Hemmed in by duties, responsibilities, busy schedules, hardships, and trials, we suffer with a lack of clear internal and external perspective. It is a poverty of spirit.
Victor Frankl, in his groundbreaking book "Man’s Search For Meaning" asserted that even in the most horrible circumstances, people must find a reason to be alive. The Nazi concentration camps where he was imprisoned provided the fodder for his claim. For it was there, where death was thick in the air, that those who survived found a will to go on and purpose in places of hopelessness.
I could see it in many of my patients eyes who lost everything due to the ravages of addiction and trauma. Decimated careers and alienated families took a heavy toll which destroyed some but became touchstones for others. Those who realized that accomplishments and success could once again be achieved were the ones who discovered that love and hope are eternally present and available. Tim Shriver of Special Olympics has a formula for this when he says;
If what happened yesterday is to define who we are today or what direction tomorrow might take, then we can hardly find a true meaning for our lives. That foundation is built on sandy soil which can be washed away or carried off by the wind.
Being alive is about occupying this moment while mustering up all of the love you have to give and then letting it flow. Your life has never been small or insignificant. It will expand to proportions beyond any imagined boundaries. And the imprint of your steps will be visible for all of eternity in the lives you have blessed.