Truth Bomb Tuesday: how you should live your life, even if you don’t know why you’re here.
I found myself watching a doco on Netflix the other day: “Surviving Death”.
It was a six part series on the afterlife, and the way the spiritual world interfaces with the actual world.
It was very interesting. Some of it was a bit outside of the range of my cup of tea, but you know, it certainly got you thinking.
And one of the questions that came up for me, which they didn’t touch at all, was why come to earth in the first place?
I mean, if that story is true – that we come from the spirit realm, live a life on earth, and then return to the heavenly realm – then why?
If we’re just going to end up in Heaven anyway, why bother have a stop-over on Earth all?
What is it that we can do here that we can’t do in Heaven?
And yeah, ok, “why are we here?” is a pretty big question. It’s not something that a six-part doco on haunted houses is going to be able to answer. But still, it did get me wondering.
If we’re down with the idea that there is a ‘why’ – that there is a point to it all – and that is something that I believe, even if I’ve got no idea what that ‘why’ actually is. Anyway, if we think that there is a why, then I think there are two standout candidates.
The first, is that we are here to serve – we are here to be put into service of something. I’m not sure exactly what that thing is. Maybe its beauty. Maybe its praising spirit. Maybe its helping all beings escape the wheel of suffering. I don’t know. But I think it is possible that we are here to be of service.
The second is that we might be here to grow and develop. Life might be a spiritual gym of sorts – a dojo. It’s where souls come to mature and strengthen.
They’re the two options, I reckon.
Personally, I’m comfortable discounting the idea that we’re here to follow a set of rules for rules sake, and earth is just here to help sort the rule-followers from the people who can’t follow rules. That seems a bit contrived to me.
I’m also comfortable saying that I don’t think we’re here to simply have a good time and follow our bliss. If entertainment was the only point, I don’t think you’d invent a world with bowel cancer and land mines.
And so that’s what I think we’ve got. Service and Growth.
Now, while I think humans probably just don’t have the perceptual or computational power to really understand the ultimate nature of reality, I think it is useful to pretend we do.
Even if we allow room for mystery and gaps in our understanding, I think it is still useful to live like we’re here for service or growth, or both.
Because if we navigate by those stars, an important thing happens.
When something challenges us in life, we don’t see it as regrettable diversion from what we’re here to do.
It becomes the point itself.
Challenge becomes the point. It is either part of our service agreement, or it is how we grow.
And if we see it like that, then we stop feeling sorry for ourselves. We stop praying for the road to be easy.
We pray for the strength to do what is needed.
And in that frame of mind, we feel a lot more empowered, and we’re able to have a lot more fun.
So this would be my advice.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know exactly why you’re here. (Nobody does.) But if you can hold yourself in the belief that you’re here for service or growth or both, then you will start living a high-power, high-responsibility life.
Which (and I’m sure that if there is a God, he thinks this is hilarious) is the key to happiness.
DB.