A Rant on the Purpose-Driven Life
This rant is brought to you courtesy of the letter Q.
Recently I saw Avenue Q, which I found to be a wonderful musical. But it reminded me of the idea some people have that they have a Purpose in life, which they somehow just have to find.
In itself, I suppose that the idea isn't too bad, but few people believe that their purpose in life is to answer phones in an office, or to make auto parts. They are here to change the world by opening a pre-school, or becoming a supreme court justice, or president, or something. But not everyone can be a supreme court justice. And so, when they have a bit of life experience, and discover that they're meant to be an average lawyer in Springfield, IL, they get a bit depressed.
The idea, I suppose, originates in the evangelical Christian idea that God has a purpose for everyone. And it's quite natural for everyone to believe that God wants them to do great things. But God's idea of great things isn't our idea of great things. And so if we dwell on the idea that we're meant to do great things, we're bound to become bitter when we discover that we will never do anything we consider great. The other difficulty is that this concept leads us to believe that certain parts of our life (commonly, college) are mere preparation for the great things we will be doing later in life. And we don't do the things we should be doing at the time. We're so busy waiting for great things to come along for us to do that we don't do the good we should be doing now.
The better proposal, I think, is to 'live for the moment'. I don't mean to discard any sense of permanence or commitment in life. Rather, I mean we should look to the good we can be doing right now, to do well by our partners, our family, our friends, and our bosses, rather than viewing our life as preparation for some great event that will never come. We should accept our lot in life, not with resignation or bitterness, but with the joy that comes from knowing that it is here, and nowhere else, that we can do good.
Recently I saw Avenue Q, which I found to be a wonderful musical. But it reminded me of the idea some people have that they have a Purpose in life, which they somehow just have to find.
In itself, I suppose that the idea isn't too bad, but few people believe that their purpose in life is to answer phones in an office, or to make auto parts. They are here to change the world by opening a pre-school, or becoming a supreme court justice, or president, or something. But not everyone can be a supreme court justice. And so, when they have a bit of life experience, and discover that they're meant to be an average lawyer in Springfield, IL, they get a bit depressed.
The idea, I suppose, originates in the evangelical Christian idea that God has a purpose for everyone. And it's quite natural for everyone to believe that God wants them to do great things. But God's idea of great things isn't our idea of great things. And so if we dwell on the idea that we're meant to do great things, we're bound to become bitter when we discover that we will never do anything we consider great. The other difficulty is that this concept leads us to believe that certain parts of our life (commonly, college) are mere preparation for the great things we will be doing later in life. And we don't do the things we should be doing at the time. We're so busy waiting for great things to come along for us to do that we don't do the good we should be doing now.
The better proposal, I think, is to 'live for the moment'. I don't mean to discard any sense of permanence or commitment in life. Rather, I mean we should look to the good we can be doing right now, to do well by our partners, our family, our friends, and our bosses, rather than viewing our life as preparation for some great event that will never come. We should accept our lot in life, not with resignation or bitterness, but with the joy that comes from knowing that it is here, and nowhere else, that we can do good.
posted by Mad Jurist at 10:44 PM
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