28 May The Meaning of Life in A Grain of Sand
Life is Not About Being Happy…Life is About Finding Meaning
Who am I? What should I be when I grow up? What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I get/be/do/etc?
The questions we ask our selves are all in the pursuit of finding meaning and purpose and ultimately most of us believe that we have more in us than we are currently exhibiting or our job allows us.
We all want to be happy, and free, and at peace, and *fill in your blank here*. What happens is that we begin to pursue that thing that we think we need at the destruction of something else. And sometimes we pursue things that take us in the wrong direction from where we “should” be headed.
The reality is that IF we had everything we ever needed at our disposal anytime we wanted it. And we didn’t have to work or manage money or maintain anything, or clean up after our selves, or ….. any other effort related “time using” activity then we would still be lacking something and we would still ask ourselves the same questions.
I believe that we are all searching for meaning and purpose; however, if we spend too much time searching we may never find it.
The Meaning of Life in A Grain of Sand
A grain of sand has purpose, and it’s purpose has been in flux it’s entire existence.
Sand starts out as a shell or a rock or glass or something else. Let’s take the life of an oyster shell. An organism grows the shell and it’s purpose is to protect oyster. It opens and closes and some sand get’s in and the oyster creates a pearl from it. The oyster continues to grow until one day the shell’s purpose changes.
The shell has become a lunch box for some passing creature. That shell has done such a great job in it’s life of protecting the oyster that the meal is great nourishment for one who eats it. It has completed it’s initial purpose and has now completed it’s second purpose.
The oyster shell is discarded. No longer of any use to the oyster or the one in need of it’s treasure. It bounces around the ocean beating up smaller shells, and eventually smashing to pieces on a rock. Those pieces begin to get smashed by other shells, and rocks and eventually become so small that they are unrecognizable that they ever held such treasures within.
They are pushed along the bottom of the sea floor getting smaller and smaller. Until one day they arrive in the crash of a wave on some beautiful beach. They become 1 piece of a billion piece puzzle. The picture they paint is perfection, and purpose, and meaning because at that moment they have arrived. Not to their final resting place, but rather arrived to their greater purpose.
That oyster shell has been transformed by a long hard fought life to bring peace, beauty, joy, and blessing to a whole host of man and creatures both big and small. Its purpose has once again changed. Actually it’s purpose changes daily. Sometimes it supports the feet of a running child. Sometimes it moves gently to one side to safely allow a coconut to plant it’s self on the shore. Other times it becomes a bold structure to once again protect a sand crab from being washed away.
So what is the purpose of the grain of sand? It’s purpose is to discover what greatness is within it at every stage of it’s existence. It’s task is to just be what it was created to be and to love every second of it.
What Can We Learn From The Grain of Sand?
I will leave the interpretation to you to discover. I feel that if you think through the parable and take it further than I did you will begin to discover something amazing about your self and where you are at in your life. I believe that as you begin to ponder your own life and meaning that you will begin to see beauty in your own life that wasn’t there before.
You see, it’s not that life is easy or beautiful all the time. It’s that life IS. You will never be me, and I will never be you. I have my purpose and it’s my task to discover what today’s purpose is. My joy is to discover what other life I can affect today. Purpose is not self motivated. You can never be truly happy or fulfilled unless you are impacting the lives around you. It’s not for self promotion, it’s simply because love is supporting other’s dreams, and blessing other’s hearts. Love is giving of the amazing life that you have to others. Life only works when we support each other in this way.
I believe that the world needs you to love your self and to love others equal to how you love your self. If you don’t love your self, then the world needs you to start there. Sometimes you can discover great things about the person in the mirror by helping others.
Life
We need you to come alive. We need your passion. We need your life. You are amazing and beautiful. You are not what you do, you are who you are. You will never be someone else, and that’s wonderful.
Your life matters and is important and you have impact on all of us everyday weather you know it or not.
I found my joy in the text in Ecclesiastes which says… “Go therefore and eat your bread with happiness, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart for God has already approved your works”. The key for me was in the statement “God has already approved your works”. How can that be, when I don’t even approve of my own works. No one else believes in me or appreciates me. How can this be?
Then it hit me. God didn’t put me here as a cruel joke or experiment. God didn’t make a mistake, I am not a mistake. I was given the gift of life. It’s a GIFT! God isn’t afraid of me messing things up. He isn’t concerned with my negative impact on this world. He is most interested in me finding purpose and meaning in everyday life. He’s most interested in me discovering beauty and passion and things that make me come alive. I can’t fall out of his approval just as I can’t earn his approval. He has already approved of me by the mere fact that I am here and the Gift that he gave me was life here with you.
When this realization hit with full impact I was set free!
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