What Color Is Your Parachute? Part 23

Comment 2:

How We Might Think of Religion or Faith

In light of this larger view of our creatureliness, we can see that religion or faith is not a question of whether or not we choose to (as it is so commonly put) "have a relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d." Looking at our life in a larger context than just our life here on Earth, it becomes apparent that some sort of relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d is a given for us, about which we have absolutely no choice. G.o.d and we were and are related, during the time of our soul's existence before our birth and in the time of our soul's continued existence after our death. The only choice we have is what to do about The Time in Between, i.e., what we want the nature of our relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d to be during our time here on Earth and how that will affect the nature of the relations.h.i.+p, then, after death.

One of the corollaries of all this is that by the very act of being born into a human body, it is inevitable that we undergo a kind of amnesia-an amnesia that typically embraces not only our nine months in the womb, our baby years, and almost one-third of each day (sleeping), but more important any memory of our origin or our destiny. We wander on Earth as an amnesia victim. To seek after Faith, therefore, is to seek to climb back out of that amnesia. Religion or Faith is the hard reclaiming of knowledge we once knew as a certainty.

Comment 3:

The First Obstacle to Executing This Mission

This first Mission of ours here on Earth is not the easiest of Missions, simply because it is the first. Indeed, in many ways, it is the most difficult. All we can see is that our life here on Earth is a very physical life. We eat, we drink, we sleep, we long to be held, and to hold. We inherit a physical body, with very physical appet.i.tes, we walk on the physical earth, and we acquire physical possessions. It is the most alluring of temptations, in our amnesia, to come up with just a Physical interpretation of this life: to think that the Universe is merely interested in the survival of species. Given this interpretation, the story of our individual life could be simply told: we are born, grow up, procreate, and die.

But we are ever recalled to do what we came here to do: that without rejecting the joy of the Physicalness of this life, such as the love of the blue sky and the green gra.s.s, we are to reach out beyond all this to recall and recover a Spiritual interpretation of our life. Beyond the physical and within the physicalness of this life, to detect a Spirit and a Person from beyond this Earth who is with us and in us-the very real and loving and awesome Presence of the great Creator from whom we came-and the One to whom we once again shall go.

Comment 4:

The Second Obstacle to Executing This Mission

It is one of the conditions of our earthly amnesia and our creature-liness that, sadly enough, some very human and very rebellious part of us likes the idea of living in a world where we can be our own G.o.d-and therefore loves the purely Physical interpretation of life, and finds it anguish to relinquish it. Traditional Christian vocabulary calls this "sin" and has a lot to say about the difficulty it poses for this first part of our Mission. All who live a thoughtful life know that it is true: our greatest enemy in carrying out this first Mission of ours is indeed our own heart and our own rebellion.

Comment 5:

Further Thoughts About What Makes Us Special and Unique

As I said earlier, many of us come to this issue of our Mission in life, because we want to feel that we are unique. And what we mean by that, is that we hope to discover some "specialness" intrinsic to us, which is our birthright, and which no one can take from us. What we, however, discover from a thorough exploration of this topic, is that we are indeed special-but only because G.o.d thinks us so. Our specialness and uniqueness reside in Him, and His love, rather than in anything intrinsic to our own being. The proper appreciation of this distinction causes our feet to carry us in the end not to the City called Pride, but to the Temple called Grat.i.tude.

What is religion? Religion is the service of G.o.d out of grateful love for what G.o.d has done for us. The Christian religion, more particularly, is the service of G.o.d out of grateful love for what G.o.d has done for us in Christ.

-PHILLIPS BROOKS, author of O Little Town of Bethlehem Comment 6: The Unconscious Doing of the Work We Came to Do You may have already wrestled with this first part of your Mission here on Earth. You may not have called it that. You may have called it simply "learning to believe in G.o.d." But if you ask what your Mission is in life, this one was and is the precondition of all else that you came here to do. Absent this Mission, it is folly to talk about the rest. So, if you have been seeking faith, or seeking to strengthen your faith, you have-w.i.l.l.y-nilly-already been about the doing of the Mission you were given. Born into This Time in Between, you have found His hand again, and reclasped it. You are therefore ready to go on with His Spirit to tackle together what you came here to do-the other parts of your Mission.

Some Random Comments About Your Second Mission in Life

Your second Mission here on Earth is also one that you share with the rest of the human race, but it is no less your individual Mission for the fact that it is shared: and that is, to do what you can moment by moment, day by day, step by step, to make this world a better place-following the leading and guidance of G.o.d's Spirit within you and around you.

Comment 1:

The Uncomfortableness of One Step at a Time

Imagine yourself out walking in your neighborhood one night, and suddenly you find yourself surrounded by such a dense fog, that you have lost your bearings and cannot find your way. Suddenly, a friend appears out of the fog, and asks you to put your hand in theirs, and they will lead you home. And you, not being able to tell where you are going, trustingly follow them, even though you can only see one step at a time. Eventually you arrive safely home, filled with grat.i.tude. But as you reflect upon the experience the next day, you realize how unsettling it was to have to keep walking when you could see only one step at a time, even though you had guidance you knew you could trust.

Now I have asked you to imagine all of this, because this is the essence of the second Mission to which you are called-and I am called-in this life. It is all very different than we had imagined. When the question, "What is your Mission in life?" is first broached, and we have put our hand in G.o.d's, as it were, we imagine that we will be taken up to some mountaintop, from which we can see far into the distance. And that we will hear a voice in our ear, saying, "Look, look, see that distant city? That is the goal of your Mission; that is where everything is leading, every step of your way."

But instead of the mountaintop, we find ourselves in the valley-wandering often in a fog. And the voice in our ear says something quite different from what we thought we would hear. It says, "Your Mission is to take one step at a time, even when you don't yet see where it all is leading, or what the Grand Plan is, or what your overall Mission in life is. Trust Me; I will lead you."

Comment 2:

The Nature of This Step-by-Step Mission

As I said, in every situation you find yourself, you have been sent here to do whatever you can-moment by moment-that will bring more grat.i.tude, more kindness, more forgiveness, more honesty, and more love into this world.

There are dozens of such moments every day. Moments when you stand-as it were-at a spiritual crossroads, with two ways lying before you. Such moments are typically called "moments of decision." It does not matter what the frame or content of each particular decision is. It all devolves, in the end, into just two roads before you, every time. The one will lead to less grat.i.tude, less kindness, less forgiveness, less honesty, or less love in the world. The other will lead to more grat.i.tude, more kindness, more forgiveness, more honesty, or more love in the world. Your Mission, each moment, is to seek to choose the latter spiritual road, rather than the former, every time.

Comment 3:

Some Examples of This Step-by-Step Mission

I will give a few examples, so that the nature of this part of your Mission may be unmistakably clear.

You are out on the freeway, in your car. Someone has gotten into the wrong lane, to the right of your lane, and needs to move over into the lane you are in. You see their need to cut in, ahead of you. Decision time. In your mind's eye you see two spiritual roads lying before you: the one leading to less kindness in the world (you speed up, to shut this driver out, and don't let them move over), the other leading to more kindness in the world (you let the driver cut in). Since you know this is part of your Mission, part of the reason why you came to Earth, your calling is clear. You know which road to take, which decision to make.

You are hard at work at your desk, when suddenly an interruption comes. The phone rings, or someone is at the door. They need something from you, a question of some of your time and attention. Decision time. In your mind's eye you see two spiritual roads lying before you: the one leading to less love in the world (you tell them you're just too busy to be bothered), the other leading to more love in the world (you put aside your work, decide that G.o.d may have sent this person to you, and say, "Yes, what can I do to help you?"). Since you know this is part of your Mission, part of the reason why you came to Earth, your calling is clear. You know which road to take, which decision to make.

Your mate does something that hurts your feelings. Decision time. In your mind's eye you see two spiritual roads lying before you: the one leading to less forgiveness in the world (you inst.i.tute an icy silence between the two of you, and think of how you can punish them or otherwise get even), the other leading to more forgiveness in the world (you go over and take them in your arms, speak the truth about your hurt feelings, and a.s.sure them of your love). Since you know this is part of your Mission, part of the reason why you came to Earth, your calling is clear. You know which road to take, which decision to make.

You have not behaved at your most n.o.ble, recently. And now you are face to face with someone who asks you a question about what happened. Decision time. In your mind's eye you see two spiritual roads lying before you: the one leading to less honesty in the world (you lie about what happened, or what you were feeling, because you fear losing their respect or their love), the other leading to more honesty in the world (you tell the truth, together with how you feel about it, in retrospect). Since you know this is part of your Mission, part of the reason why you came to Earth, your calling is clear. You know which road to take, which decision to make.

Comment 4:

The Spectacle That Makes the Angels Laugh

It is necessary to explain this part of our Mission in some detail, because so many times you will see people wringing their hands, and saying, "I want to know what my Mission in life is," all the while they are cutting people off on the highway, refusing to give time to people, punis.h.i.+ng their mate for having hurt their feelings, and lying about what they did. And it will seem to you that the angels must laugh to see this spectacle. For these people wringing their hands, their Mission was right there, on the freeway, in the interruption, in the hurt, and at the confrontation.

Comment 5:

The Valley Versus the Mountaintop

At some point in your life your Mission may involve some grand mountaintop experience, where you say to yourself, "This, this, is why I came into the world. I know it. I know it." But until then, your Mission is here in the valley, and the fog, and the little callings moment by moment, day by day. More to the point, it is likely you cannot ever get to your mountaintop Mission unless you have first exercised your stewards.h.i.+p faithfully in the valley.

It is an ancient principle, to which Jesus alluded often, that if you don't use the information the Universe has already given you, you cannot expect it will give you any more. If you aren't being faithful in small things, how can you expect to be given charge over larger things? (Luke 16:1012, 19:1124). If you aren't trying to bring more grat.i.tude, kindness, forgiveness, honesty, and love into the world each day, you can hardly expect that you will be entrusted with the Mission to help bring peace into the world or anything else large and important. If we do not live out our day-by-day Mission in the valley, we cannot expect we are yet ready for a larger mountaintop Mission.

Comment 6:

The Importance of Not Thinking of This Mission as "Just a Training Camp"

The valley is not just a kind of "training camp." There is in your imagination even now an invisible spiritual mountaintop to which you may go, if you wish to see where all this is leading. And what will you see there, in the imagination of your heart, but the goal toward which all this is pointed: that Earth might be more like heaven. That human life might be more like G.o.d's. That is the large achievement toward which all our day-by-day Missions in the valley are moving. This is a large order, but it is accomplished by faithful attention to the doing of our great Creator's will in little things as well as in large. It is much like the building of the pyramids in Egypt, which was accomplished by the dragging of a lot of individual pieces of stone by a lot of individual men.

The valley, the fog, the going step by step, is no mere training camp. The goal is real, however large. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in heaven."

Some Random Comments About Your Third Mission in Life

Your third Mission here on Earth is one that is uniquely yours, and that is: a) to exercise the Talent that you particularly came to Earth to use-your greatest gift that you most delight to use, b) in those place(s) or setting(s) that G.o.d has caused to appeal to you the most, c) and for those purposes that G.o.d most needs to have done in the world.

Comment 1: