What is your purpose? Does it show??
The subject of PURPOSE came up twice for me today,
so I felt compelled to take bit of time to pass it on to you.
Because I’m a giver like that
One of the more intriguing and convicting questions
that I have often pondered where people are concerned
is whether they live a life of Purpose or a life of Pleasure.
For example, I don’t think I’d hear much disagreement
if I were to say that Mother Teresa lived a Life of Purpose.
Subsequently, Paris Hilton might fit the bill for a Life of Pleasure.
What I have seen for quite some time is a push toward
living a life of pleasure; doing what feels good in the moment.
The “if it feels good, do it” revolution of the 60′s didn’t die -
it merely melted into the fabric of day to day life.
Society has grown to accept it
and embrace it as normal.
Focus is placed more on feelings and emotions
rather than principal, priority, and importance.
We’ve been sold a superficial bill of goods
that has weakened our character
and strengthened our apathy.
We spend our weeks planning the weekends;
invest our months saving for getaway vacations -
and spend our years trying to retire & get away from it all…
Fun, excitement, thrills, and adventure – all pleasures
that we’ve become addicted to and live for.
Fortunately for many of us, television has bridged the gap between
what we can do in real life and what we can experience vicariously.
So on any given night you can walk down the streets of America
and watch the brain draining through the glow of TV screens,
while in the gutters lay the homeless and the hungry.
Because rather than open our eyes and ears to the reality around us,
we are closed off into our World of comfort and convenience, and
doze off after the media has adequately masqueraded it’s agenda
as truth and commercialized the screen with our updated “needs”.
Strange how, as I sit here, I hear the music
and the words of an old Elvis Presley song;
“Take a look at you and me,
Are we too blind to see,
Do we simply turn our heads
And look the other way…”
( “In The Ghetto“ by Elvis Presley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6am8V5KNJ4A )
I would love to reach more people and
make a positive impact in their Life.
Over the years I have received letters
from those whose lives I have made a
difference in and I have heard back from
others who have been deeply and profoundly
touched by something I have said and shared.
It isn’t the World, but it’s a start.
How can I turn my back on that and
say that what I do isn’t important?
How do I see what I see
and look the other way?
How can I pretend to be deaf to
the cries of the hurt and unheard?
If mine was a life of pleasure,
it would be easy; I would simply
turn the volume up on my stereo to
drown out what I didn’t want to hear.
I could just turn the channel on the T.V.
so I wouldn’t have to see or watch what didn’t
entertain me and keep my mind preoccupied.
If only mine was a life of pleasure…
I’d fit right in.
But it isn’t.
Mine is a Life of Purpose,
and trying to fill it with the pursuit of pleasures
merely leaves me empty and void – longing
for substance rather than the superficial.
Though now I may not be making the kind of impact that
I desire to, it is my hope that along the way I can inspire
enough people to look outside of themselves and
into the eyes of the neglected and in need.
And for those who choose a life of pleasure, I hope
that they can appreciate and stand in support
of those whose calling is beyond themselves.
May neither have to apologize to the other