This blog is written especially for the 15-25 age group, including my college students, whom I love, and for everyone else who sometimes feels lost and alone in the world. There is meaning in life. There is purpose. There is joy.
We live in age of self-absorption, a culture in which depression and confusion have become the norm, not the exception. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among ages 15-24 and the second among college students (afsp.org). We are a people in constant search for happiness, from pills, from sex, and from self-made delusions. The root of this phenomenon? I surmise it is the delusion that I am the focal point around which everything else in the world revolves.
Most of us are born into this delusion. Everyone in our little world is there to care for us and love us and get excited everytime we smile or say "da-da," but in a healthy development we will reach the realization that every other person in the world sees the world from their central perspective, not ours. We come to realize that everyone else has his/her own family, school, interests, etc., just as we have ours.
Especially in the present age, however, many are getting stuck in that self-absorption, and this is sure to lead to problems in all areas of life. The self-absorbed person expects others to give all the time. Everything is about me. Help me. Fix me. Need me. Notice me. Look at me. Advise me. Coddle me. Adore me.
Author Olin Miller is quoted as saying "We probably wouldn’t worry about what people are thinking about us if we could know how seldom they do." There is much truth in his words. Everyone we know is not thinking aobut us all the time, just as we are not thinking about every other individual all the time. Why didn’t anyone call to ask why I wasn’t at church last week? (Why don’t I call everyone who misses a Sunday?) Why isn’t everyone reading my blogs? (Why am I not reading all of theirs?) Why isn’t anyone noticing the sad look on my face? (Why do I not notice all the sad looks around me everyday?)
A friend recently e-mailed me the following pictures of the vastness of the universe, which well illustrate our size in the world (Thanks, Ina):
Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky. It is more than 1000 light years away.
A Hubble Telescope ultra deep field infrared view of countless entire galaxies billions of light-years away:
Feeling small and insignificant now? Well, hold on. There’s another side of the story!
Although we are no more important than the other 6.6+ billion people on earth, we are just as important as all the others, and one person who is not focused solely on himself can make a difference in the world! Martin Luther King, Jr. was one single human life. Mother Teresa was one single human life. Billy Graham, Martin Luther, Abe Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, C.S. Lewis, the Apostle Paul . . . Every person you admire is one single person in the vast universe, just as are you and I. Not one of them was happy all the time, but they used their short time on earth for the good of others, and they made a difference, maybe just to their own families or churches, maybe to the entire world, but all with significance.
The best news of all is that the God who created all the heavens has also chosen to love you. Unconditionally. More than any human ever could.
And the irony is that once we are able to focus our hearts and minds on the Creator, and on all the other billions of wonderful people He has created, the inner peace and joy that has eluded us will find us! Not that life on this earth will ever be perfect or without its dark valleys, but that our individual life has purpose and meaning.
12:31 The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Lara, I went back and added the song name: Who Am I? Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Amen, Melissa! We are minuscule in the big picture, but the God of the universe knows every hair on our heads, and He desires that you and I and every other person get involved in the work of His plan! We are definitely significant to Him!
Nothing bespeaks the problem of self-absorption more than our reaction to suffering in our own lives. When Christians "fall on hard times" or undergo extreme amounts of dissatisfaction, turbulence, or a sense of derailing, we're quick to wonder why God allows such things in our lives as if the lives we lead belong to us. It's when we consider that we are but a cog in the machine of human history (that God desires to unfold for the sake of maximizing the amount of people who will come to Him) that our trials and pain aren't for naught. Sometimes the trials we endure aren't just for us but for others - perhaps for people a century from now in a different country! Who knows? As the emeritus professor of philosophy at Birmingham University John Hick has pointed out, the purpose of life is not to be a part of a world where God has made a hospitable environment for His human pets, but to have an environment suitable for as many people as possible to freely become children of God and heirs of eternal life.
lol yellow-shirt Gene! Yes, I suppose the pictures could be used for discussing astronomy also!
Apodemeo, eres un hijo precioso del Creador del mundo!
Amen, red-shirt Gene! Amazing, isn't it?!
Thanks, Becky! Yes, I remember you are a trekkie. I recall your name here was Seven for a brief while! And I confessed to you back then that I have never seen an episode of Star Trek. Shhh, don't tell anybody!
yes those were embarassing times for me... I do not want Seven to come back she can be a little flakey... I just don't like dealing with all the emotions, and/or passion God has blessed me with.
I know you don't watch tv...but true trekkies are addicted to Star Trek.
Let me tell you about tonights episode I saw tonight while trying to wind down and go to sleep. It is the series of Deep Space NINE and Captin Cisco is the great Advesary (he is black) He hears and Dreams (prophecy) many deep situations, his 2nd in Command, meditates and prays almost Hourly (She is a woman) there is a greedy little alien called Quark and it is all about money and the profit...
Cisco said tonight, wait, the prophets (spirits) told me today that HE WILL COME... and we will all be better for it...just wait.
then the next episode is called sacrifice of ANGELS and FAVOR THE BOLD and RESURECTION.
Don't tell me star trek isn't full of hidden Jesus messages.
Live long and panteth for the living water, my sister chick
Thanks, Becky. It's true I almost never watch tv (it's probably been turned on less than an hour over the past 6 months), but I can't say it's really a moral issue with me. I just have too many other things I need to do and/or prefer to do. That doesn't mean I never waste time. I just prefer to do it on-line, where there's some interaction! :)
Hmm, that can make you stop and think that is for sure..I guess that the world out there in the unverise is huge. Who Am I in this world is one question that we all ask each other. I guess that there are somethings in this world that are pretty big. I have found that even when I am in my lost points, I watch the stars come shooting across the sky. It amazes me that there is something out there beyond the earth. I always like CS Lewis and this quote from him seems to match your blog, wouldn't you agree with me on that one?
Hi Megan! Nice to see you! I'm not familiar with that quote, but C.S. Lewis was an intelligent thinker! Star-gazing has a calming effect on me, as does much of nature. The vastness of the ocean, the massive mountains, the constant busyness of the squirrels and birds behind my house . . . and somehow you and I fit into the whole big picture, not as the focal point, but as an important part of the whole. Amazing, isn't it!
This was Great Kathy...I remember seeing the planet thing in an email once. I never really related it to myself personally. It's sad...poor Pluto has now lost it's "Planet Status". It's no longer significant enough to hold that title. Well...I guess that's not really the reason, it has to do with the whole point of not meeting the qualifications as a planet. I sure am glad that God doesn't have qualification guidelines for me!
Kinda helps put things into perspective, doesn't it?
Great job Kathy!
This jogged my memory of an audio book that I was listening to a few years back. I was traveling a lot at the time and I recall this book filled with facts about the universe that would boggle the mind.
Here is the name of the book:
I highly recommend listening to this book for those of you who would like to further expand on what Kathy has so eloquently presented here today.
Hi Valarie! Yes, poor Pluto! He's still doing what he always did though!
Thanks, Michael! Looks like a great book, for listening or for reading! Thanks for the suggestion and for the kind words! Were you near the recent tornado damage?
Tornado. Wow. I was out of town that weekend. Coincidence? Not!
It hit really hard near my office. I work right across the street from the Peachtree Plaza. You know the great big circular building with the elevator that goes up the outside? The one that has the rotating restaurant on top. Yeah, that one. Most of the windows, especially in the elevator, were blown completely out. Or more than likely, sucked in due to a vacuum created within.
It it quite the mess. But I am thankful that I was not here that weekend. Divine protection! Thank you Lord!
Hi Kathy! Excellent blog! You really have a way with words. I can't think of anything else to add to this, you did a fantastic job. There is nothing in this world or beyond that is BIGGER or more powerful than the Love of our creator.
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