What Is My Life Purpose?

Life Purpose seems to be a major preoccupation with many of us at the dawn of the 21st Century. Perhaps it is because this is a time of great change. A time of a great leap forward in human spiritual evolution. We are at the time of transition between Ages (An Age is roungly 2000 to 2100 years). The Piscean Age began at the dawn of the 1st Century CE or about the time of the birth of Christ. The Age dawning at this moment is the Age of Aquarius.

What will the Dawining of the Age of Aquarius bring to human kind? Another Christ or the reappearance of Christ Jesus? Perhaps this time it will be a woman who is chosen to be the messanger of God. One thing is certain, a great change is coming and I believe we have the power to choose what type of change it will be. Will we choose the Light or enter a time of darkness? I am betting on the Light!

When the times are changing, people seem to get very restless and anxious for something more than the 9-5 humdrum of whatever career they have chosen in order to make a living. In trying to shuffle off the commonplace, many of us seek our "higher purpose" in the belief that this just can't be all there is to life! There is a belief abroad in the land that each of us was imprinted with a Divine Purpose. In order to be truly happy and at peace, many believe we must find our Diving Purpose and stay on "our path".

My problem with this thinking is that once again we search outside ourselves for our happiness. Happiness is an inside job. You are the only one who can make yourself happy! No thing, no one, no job can make you happy unless you wish to be happy and learn how to be happy without outside stimulation.

In Matthew, Jesus says: If you would seek the Father, look within. He is not there or here, over there or above - the Kingdom of God is WITHIN! But we all too often look outside ourselves for the perfect mate, the perfect job, the perfect home. These things are nice and they are part of the abundant life but they do not bring lasting happiness; as I have learned first hand.

As I sat down to write this week's blog, I was thinking of a lady who is on the building maintenance crew of my office building. She empties trash cans and cleans restrooms for a living - not a particularly high calling - but she is one of the happiest people I know. She is not just a smiling face; she glows with the light of inner peace and contentment. I asked her why she was so happy.

She told me that while her job might be considered menial, she knew that it was vital to the success of all the companies and people in that building and that she enjoyed seeing things clean and tidy. It was her contribution to the common good and she felt that any honest work done with a smile and diligence was God's work here on earth. She was right with her God and right with her life. I admired and envied her contentment and sense of well being.

We have but one real Divine Purpose: To learn to love unconditionally, to overcome the need for ego gratification, status, prestige. If you can empty trash cans and clean bathrooms and understand that happiness comes from within, then you have found a great truth.

Now this is not to say that we should all take menial jobs, but I will tell you from personal experience that time spent doing a low status job and learning to be happy doing it is one of the greatest spiritual lessons that a person can learn. I experienced the sanctity of honest work well done, I learned that the things of the ego such as status, corner offices and prestige are empty; false fronts that pass away as fast as they appear. They have no currency in the final moments of our lives or in the greater life to come.

It is wonderful to live an abundant life, with a nice home, car and a big title on your door but it is just as wonderful to go to bed tired from honest work and grateful to your God for the joy in your heart. The Truth lies in how you view the state of being that you are in. Wealth does not make you a noble or good person, nor a happy one.

Living the simple life should not be a cause for shame or unhappiness. All paths are valid ways to the Father. If you allow wealth or poverty to dominate your life, your thinking and to affect your happiness; then that state of being is not serving you. Either change the state or change your feelings about it and be happy.

It is true that each of us seem to have a talent, often multiple talents, that are imprinted in our DNA. We have had these impulsions since early childhood. I am a born teacher. I knew this when I was 5 years old. I used to drive the kids in the neighborhood crazy because I was always teaching them or showing them something. I now drive my wife, Susan, crazy! Naturally, I went into education; first as a high school teacher, then into school administration as a vice-principal, dean and counselor. I knew that I was doing what was imprinted on my soul because the time flew by as I stood in front of a class. I just knew how to do this and I loved it.

I watched my colleagues who had become teachers because it was a steady, safe profession with great benefits that paid fairly well (at least in California where I taught). They trudged through their days, counting the minutes until the bell rang and they were at last free. I am sure their students picked up on this attitude and felt the same way. By contrast, my students had to be told that it was time to go to the next class; not because I was a super teacher but because I loved history and I loved teaching and therefore so did they!

I am now a minister and walking the same path teaching God's Truth rather than history. It is the same purpose wearing two different faces. I have learned that if you wish to find "your purpose", first learn to be happy - from the inside out. Then think about what you love to do so much that time flies by when you are doing it. Now think of how you can make a living doing this but don't fixate on one job, there are many that use the same talent.

The real lesson is that you cannot be happy doing anything until you are happy being you! Happiness is truly an inside job!

Where Do We Go From Here?

One of the most enduring questions asked by human kind seems to be: "Where do we go from here?" Sometimes we hear the corollary which is: "Is this all there is?"

Life is short and as we get older it seems to get shorter and shorter and time flies by. Remember when we were youngsters and a year seemed like an eternity? I used to count my age in halves, as in I am seven and a HALF as if that made all the difference and I was now all grown up! I believe that we did this because we were so far from our mortality that life seemed to stretch all the way forever.

Well I am 61 and I now know that while I will be here for many more years, the end is closer than the beginning. I cannot, with any honesty, tell myself that I am "middle aged" unless I really expect a life span of over 120! Because I know that I have little time to waste and that there are not many "do-overs" left at my age, I find myself experiencing a new and sharper focus on effective use of the Law (God's operating system) and on God. I find myself thinking more of Home.

I use the word Home in the sense of returning whence we came. We do not go to a foreign place never before visited; we go Home where we are welcomed as travelers returning from a very short but far away journey. I believe that we have lived forever and will live forever more, in one dimension, form, place or another. We are made of energy and science tells us that energy cannot be destroyed; only its form changes.

Understanding that science and spirituality both seek to find eternal truths, we know that they often as not reach the same truth through different routes. We do not die, we transition into another time, another place, another form. The consciousness that makes us who we are remains. The Light never goes out, it simply burns in another lamp. We go on and on and on but this body, like a good car, is only good for so many miles and when the repairs are just too much we trade in the body on a new model in a new realm.

In our American society we are far too obsessed with the body. We seem to believe that the body is us. As one well known TV minister said the other day:
"We focus on the Duck and not what is inside the Duck! God put me in a light brown Duck suit but I am not a Duck. I am not the suit. I am a Creation of the Most High God and as such I am Divine. The Holy Spirit dwells in me and I am of Royal Lineage. We must ignore the Duck suit and celebrate the Divine Spirit within each human".

He is entirely right! We confuse our body with who we are. We are not what we eat, we are not what we wear, we are not what our parents made us, we are not temporary beings destined for an early grave: We are immortal spiritual beings made of the very stuff of the Most High God!!

Just think about the implications of what I have just written. If all of us live forever, then nothing can really hurt us, we need not live in fear of anything. We can become fearless and really LIVE for the first time without looking at the clock ticking our lives away.

What happens when we die or transition? I don't know of anyone who has passed into the other realm, spent any appreciable time there and came back to tell us all about it. I have seen and experienced "the other side" twice for a short time and can tell you that I know without a shadow of a doubt that life goes on.

I have personal experience of dying (twice) and being given a choice to stay here or go over into "The Light". Those giving me the choice were people very close to me and very dear. I remember my very Southern maternal grandmother reaching out her hand and saying: "It's so good to see you again, darlin! Are you ready to join me and your Daddy and all those who love you but have crossed over?" She made it clear that I was not quite dead yet even though I had no pulse and was not breathing, that I could if the desire was strong enough, come back into this life. I thought about it for what seemed like hours while looking down at my body sprawled on the beach while someone performed what they called then "Artificial Respiration" in those days on a body far below.

Since I was a young father and only in my mid 20's with a whole life yet to be lived, I finally decided to come back. It was the hardest decision I ever had to make! The peace, warmth, love and joy of the Light was such that it took superhuman desire to live; for me to give that up and come back. While I have never regretted that decision, I have often remembered the sensation of standing on the threshold of another world - a world of absolute joy, peace, perfection in all things and finding it wonderful beyond human experience.

The freedom of the world beyond this world is hard to explain. Your thought becomes your reality instantly. You travel with a thought and a word. There is no time and space, no distance, no pain, no hunger - just a warm glow of contentment, freedom and love. We all go to this place; the good, the bad and the ugly!

I believe that our experience once there is designed to help us to learn the lessons of our time on earth, therefore each of us has a different experience but that experience has no element of punishment in it. We don't need punishment after we die, we need insight and understanding. That is what we get, if we allow it and are open to it. Those who insist on being punished can experience that but it is they who do it to themselves!

To some of you this may seem strange talk but I have experienced transition twice, once in 1969 and once in 1982 and the experience was different only in setting and cast of characters, not in substance.

I tell you now, there is eternal life for every human that ever lived or will live, not just for the saintly or those who follow Jesus or Mohammed or whomever. You have nothing to fear, you are loved beyond human understanding.

Be kind to your brothers and sisters; we are all made of the Most High God and are all of Royal Blood. Be kind to yourself for you are made of God Itself and you are worthy of all the love your heart can hold. Never hold yourself cheap or think that you are worthless - you are of God!

Lose your fear today for fear is the enemy of your Good. Until you lose your fear you will never experience your Best Life.

Be well, be happy and be prosperous until we are together again!