Knowing our Purpose

We enter our third week of inquiry in the series that invites us to embrace the question and know the Truth. This week we look at one of the fundamental questions of a human/spiritual journey: How do we sense and claim our deep purpose and infuse our lives with meaning?

Most people don't dwell on the question of life's meaning very much. Most of our questions are about acquisition and activity; concerns with what I have and what I do. The equation of the surface mind is this: who I become is based upon what I do, and what I have. Being is relegated to an outcome, the result of my actions and possessions.

For many years of my adult life, I followed this syllogism. I believed that my life would be meaningful and valuable once I reached a certain level of success, either in stature or acquisition. My sense of self was equal to what I did in the world, my title, the esteem of others, my socioeconomic status - I was my job, my house, my car, etc. But the realization came one day while I stood gazing at the ocean from the deck of our home in Cayucos that all the doing and having left me feeling mostly empty and meaningless. The pain of that bottoming out experience drove me to embrace the questions that we are asking in this series.

The most troubling questions were about identity, meaning and purpose, Who am I, and why am I here, and do I matter? These questions gnawed at me daily for many months until one day I found myself in a Unity church in San Luis Obispo and my journey toward finding meaning and purpose began in earnest.

These questions are the call of the hero's spiritual journey. This call typically sounds from within us out of a state of discontentment or deep restlessness, when what we believed was the way for us leaves us wanting. I believe this calling is our soul's intention to reveal itself and its mission through our human journey. It is always calling us but we aren't always listening. We have ears but do not hear. When we do hear it, we recognize that we are here in human form for a purpose greater than simply living, surviving and dying. It is a realization that our true self, our essence is not merely physical, but spiritual. Once we behold this truth it imbues our every step and every moment with a higher purpose. It reverses the syllogism for successful living. Knowing ourselves as Spirit puts Being in a place of supreme importance. Being who we truly are is primary, and from that knowing what we have and what we do flows appropriately and gracefully from wholeness and generosity.

Knowing the spiritual truth about ourselves is the supreme purpose of life, and can bring us back home no matter how far afield our journey takes us. Spiritual purpose is like Ariadne's thread that Rev. Denese mentioned in last week's sermon. In the myth, Ariadne gives Theseus a ball of string, which he unwinds upon entering the labyrinth and then follows it back out. Spiritual purpose transcends life's greatest obstacles because who you truly are cannot be limited by circumstances. Such knowledge can bring you home time and again. It can save us from total despair, apathy, and self-centeredness. As A Course in Miracles puts it, we can choose to be a "hostage to the ego or a host to God"; we can choose to strengthen the false self or reveal the true self; we can choose to make idols out of externals or bear witness to the eternal dimension of life.