Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

I will apologize up front that this topic is not a Friday light-hearted muse. Today is a little deeper.

My delving into philosophy and psychology this morning stems from a reaction to the inundation of all the rhetoric, all the pain, all the broken parts of the world that I, along with each one of you, are subjected to every waking moment and when you can’t sleep yourself to refreshment, stretch it out to relaxation, drink it away through intoxication or wash it off until you look like lilies and smell like daisies…it starts to sink in, stinks up the attitude and pulls us down. The only thing I’ve found to scrub it clean is prayer. A peaceful reset from white light that cleans up the darkest stain.

Here are three basic questions you should answer as early in life as possible and until you do … with conviction … you are likely going to revisit them until you can.

Does God exist?
Who am I?
What is my purpose?

My daughter gave me the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl about a year ago. I read most of it when I first got it but it wasn’t until recently when I unpacked it from our latest move that I finished the book.
In the final pages, he provokes thoughts and emotions with phrases like (denoted with an asterisk *),

*”But I knew on that day, in that hour, my new life started. Step for step I progressed, until I became a human being.”
– (This addresses the phase of recovery after Frankl had been freed from the horrors of concentration camp. It was not an automatic reset the second he walked through the gates of the camp).

– It reminds me of the mountain climber who’s guide turns to him and says, you are not paying me to get you to the peak…you are paying me to get you back down safely. The top is only half way there or in Frankl’s case, the bottom was only half way through the experience.

*”…no one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them.”

-Whew! Tough to get your head around but many times harder to put into practice. Even with reminders like,
“Vengeance is mine saieth the Lord.” Romans 12:19
and
“But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.”
Matthew 5:39

*”Man, however, is able to live and even die for the sake of his ideals and values!”

-Doesn’t this beg questions for you like, “What do you stand for?” “What do you believe in?” & “What are you willing to do to defend it?”
•fight with whatever level of force deemed necessary
•work your fingers to the bone
•sacrifice your wealth, health, happiness or family
•walk away to avoid the potential destruction of what you’ve built (think on that for a while)

*Nietzsche (quoted in book): “He who has a WHY to live for can bear almost any HOW.”
-Amen

*”Thus it can be seen that mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become.”

-Where has this quote been?!
-This explains a lot for me.
-I’ve lived with this tension, unease, nagging, busybody behavior for SO long and now, it becomes obvious that I refuse to get comfortable with the idea that “this”/’who I am today’ is all I will be.
-some refer to it as lifelong learning

*Schopenhauer (quoted in book): “Mankind is apparently doomed to vacillate eternally between the two extremes of distress and boredom.”

-In this day and age of progressive automation…Siri (Apple’s voice activated solution provider), Alexa (Amazon’s voice activated interface and connection to the Internet), Cortana (Microsoft’s voice activation) or Google Now. We are destined to an increased level of “boredom” until we reach the next level of distress. Can you see it coming?

The meaning of life may be different for each of us but I think answering the three basic questions earlier in your years here on earth may save you and those around you significant time, energy and trouble.

Have a blessed weekend!