“Why am I here”
“What is my Purpose”
“What is the meaning of life”
If you’re a subscriber, you knew that I was going to tackle this subject sooner or later didn’t you?
This is a uniquely human question that we humans have asked ourselves for thousands of years now.
Let’s distill those thousands of years in the next 2 minutes, and answer this question.
And l want to give you a spoiler warning.
If you need to find the answer for yourself, or if you don’t want to hear something that may not align with your faith, then click skip right now.
And if you decide to stay, then please watch all the way to the end, because you will not get the full impact of this message otherwise.
It is safe to say that no other animal on earth has asked this question.
So we are quite the privileged hairless ape?
We have created entire occupations, cultures, and ways of life in pursuit of answering this question…or because we think we have answered this question already. (show monks in Tibet, worshippers in India).
I have some good news and bad news.
First the bad news. You ready? You better sit down for this.
I’ll give you a couple of seconds.
Life has no innate meaning.
Life is absolutely meaningless.
Let that sink in for a minute.
I don’t think this cold hard truth is shocking to you…because in your heart of hearts you have known this to be true.
We are desperate to create meaning for our lives. Some of us cling to the hope and, I dare say… “delusion” that our life has some inherent meaning.
It does NOT.
But now…Here’s the good news.
Just because Life has no innate meaning…does not mean that it is meaningless for you as an individual.
It means that we have been given a clean slate to create whatever meaning we want from our lives.
You have the opportunity to create a meaning for your life that means something to you.
It’s like your English teacher giving you an assignment to write a story about anything…anything you want.
Remember how that felt? You were lost at first.
It was uncomfortable…because she left this wide open, and you didn’t know where to start.
Why didn’t she give you a subject? Why didn’t she tell you what to do? That would have been so much easier, wouldn’t it?
But she wanted YOU to figure out what your story should be about…she wanted you to show passion for something…that was meaningful to you.
and you know what?
You realize you have always sought meaning, because you wanted your life to mean something and not be a complete…waste…of time.
Well, now is your chance to write that story, that story of your life.
It will be the story that you have always dreamed about…that you’ve always wanted for yourself.
And let me tell you something, it is going to be a rather short story.
The great polish philosopher Henryk Skolimowski, during one of my lectures in college, had this to say about the meaning of life, and I’ll never forgotten it.
I’m paraphrasing:
Ahh, the meaning of life!
Who are we to know ourselves?
We are a piece of dust.
But at times, our life is so illumined with meaning…
That we are a shining piece of dust.
So, go get your meaning.
The universe needs more shining pieces of dust.
Tomorrow is not guaranteed for anyone.
You don’t have any more time to waste.
