7 Years Ago Today

Seven years ago today, I found the purpose of life.

Not just MY life, but LIFE ITSELF.

Being an analytical person, I’ve always asked, “why?”

I started asking the BIG questions when I was around sixteen. 

Here’s a little glimpse of where my mind was back then:

1.       If I was born in India, would I still be Catholic?

I grew up Catholic all my life; I kneeled, sat, stood and prayed all throughout my childhood. I went to Catholic elementary school, Catholic high school, and never missed a Sunday with my parents and sister growing up. I was very disillusioned with Catholicism; why was the bible rarely emphasized? It seems as though my catholic faith was more of a cultural upbringing than a personal belief. If I was born in India, I probably wouldn’t be catholic; I probably would be Muslim or Hindi. Why? Because that is the culture and the context I would be raised in. But does not God transcend culture? Is He not greater than culture?

2.       There are so many religions! Which one is the “right one?”

There was a meme that said, “I’m going to hell in every religion.” For the longest time, I was against “organized religion.” God gave us a brain; why would we need to fit ourselves in one of these pre-molded organizations? Doesn't this restrict us? Doesn’t this hinder our growth as human beings, if we are simply to “do this and don’t do that, say this and don’t say that, be this and don’t be that?” I’m an independent thinker! I can think on my own, thank you very much! Jesse Ventura said “Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers.” Bono of U2 said, “Religion is what is left when the Spirit has left the room.” So many people kill in the name of their religion. It’s dangerous! Why would I want to be a part of that? You can have religion. I’m fine without it. I would rather live life to the fullest, respect all people, and treat others the way I want to be treated. That makes more sense to me. Simple.

      

3.       What if I study all the religions, and live by the thread that weaves them all?

The Golden Rule: Do unto others the way you would have do unto you. Love people. Treat all people with dignity and respect. Karma: what goes around comes around. You reap what you sow. 

4.       Doesn’t “organized religion” divide us more than unite us?

Sunday is the most divided day of the week. Everyone across the globe gathers to their own places of worship, whether it be a church, synagogue, temple, or tv set. I’d rather spend my Sunday volunteering at a soup kitchen or something. Why sit and listen to someone preach to me for an hour while I could use that hour actually applying what is preached?

5.       How valid is the Bible? Isn’t it just a bunch of stories written by man?

We’ve all played the game of “telephone” – take a bunch of people in a room, whisper a message to one person, have that person whisper to the next person, and voila! You went from “Mary had a little lamb,” to “The cow jumped over the moon.” - a completely different story, with a completely different subject and predicate. This brings up the question, “Did Jesus really exist?”

6.       If God is love, and He is our Father in heaven who loves us, why would He send His children to hell?

Is hell even real? Is heaven real for that matter? I finally got the answer to this question after many years: Hell is not meant for you. It’s meant for Satan. The problem is, so many of us choose to listen to the devil instead of Jesus that we send ourselves there, not God. 

7.       Is there such thing as true humility?

As human beings, we are selfish by nature. Don’t believe me? When you look at a photo with you in a group, who do you look for first? You, or the group? Exactly. However altruistic we try to be, our nature is always to look out for numero uno. With that being said, is it possible to be truly selfless? Could it be that humility is just another form of pride? 

8.       Did Jesus really exist? Who was He? What was His mission?

I read somewhere that there was more proof of Abraham Lincoln’s existence than Jesus’. Interesting.

9.       What is love?

Baby, don’t hurt me.. no more. Agape. Philia. Eros.

10.   What is the purpose of life?

Existentialism? Nihilism? New Age? “To become the next Greatest Version of the Grandest Vision of Who I Really Am” Neale Donald Walsh “You Only Live Once” Drake “You are what you repeatedly do.” Aristotle “Love your life” “Life is not about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself” Coffee Mug “Free yourself from yourself” Nick H “Salvation lies within.” Shawshank Redemption “You are in control of your destiny” “Trust in yourself” “Self Reliance” Emerson Leave your legacy. Make a dent on this earth.

These sayings sound nice, but they are all driven by the self, which is driven by ego. Ego is selfish by nature, so how could one truly love each other if we are doing it for our own personal gain?

I spent a lot of time in my adolescent years seeking the answers to these questions. I would talk to “religious people,” but a lot of these people just followed their religion blindly and/or didn’t have the answers themselves. To me, I didn’t understand how you can truly believe what you believe unless you really ask “why?” 

Which leads me to my answer.

I found the answer in a book entitled The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. On September 25^th, 2005 I read these words:

It’s not about you.

The purpose of your life is far greater than

your own personal fulfillment, your peace of

mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater

than your family, your career, or even your

wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to

know why you were placed on this planet, you

must begin with God. You were born by his

purpose and for his purpose.

The search for the purpose of life has puzzled

people for thousands of years. That’s because

we typically begin at the wrong starting point—

ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like,

“What do I want to be? What should I do with

my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my

dreams for my future?”

But focusing on ourselves will never reveal

our life’s purpose. The Bible says, “It is God

who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s

life is in his power.”1

“It’s not about you,” was the first four words in the first chapter. “The purpose of my life is not about me? How does that make any sense?” For you to know the purpose of your life, you can’t start with yourself, you have to start with God.” Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “Plans not to hurt or harm you, but to give you a hope and a future.” God has a plan for me?? It’s in the Bible?? I never heard that before! That is such a relief, because before that, I thought I had to figure out on own! Needless to say, that first paragraph captured my attention, and for the past seven years I’ve been able to live my life with extreme confidence, finally knowing the answer to these ten questions I have asked since I was sixteen. This is such a weighty topic, and one blog posting does not thoroughly illustrate my point of view in depth, so I may have to revisit this topic again in the future. In the meantime, please think deeply on this posting, as it has been the result of fourteen years of asking, seeking, and knocking. Meditate on it, and be blessed!

Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

Last Friday was pretty incredible for me. I have been really short on funds lately and I was not sure if I was going to be able to afford to eat at our staff Christmas Lunch at Fuddruckers. That morning, I prayed and asked, “Ok God, I know you are my Father in heaven, I know you love me, and I know that you are also called ‘Provider,’ so I’m going to need you to help me believe that. If I’m meant to eat today, then I’ll eat. If not, I guess I’m fasting.” Lo and behold, not only was my meal covered, but a random person gave us four tickets to the 5:30 showing of Mission Impossible 4 (apparently his other friends cancelled at the last minute)! I decided to watch it with two cousins and one of my metees.

(As I am typing this, I just received $100 gift from another cousin!)

Ok, so here’s a little about myself: I’m very analytical. I take notes on everything , everywhere. If I don’t have a piece of paper to write on, I’ll use a napkin of the back of a receipt. I’m always asking, “why?” and I always want to know the purpose. I’m also really into movies. Books and movies. When I watch movies and read books, I dissect the heck out of them. I used to walk into a theater with a pen and a small 3x5 notepad, and jot away as the movie played. I didn’t let the darkness of the theater stop me from recording what I needed to get from the movie. I trained myself to write in the dark. The advent of the iPhone changed everything, and completely made my job easier (I digress, so I’ll post more on this in another entry).

                                                     Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

This is not a movie review; just some insights from the movie that I am choosing to expound on. 10 nuggets I got from Mission Impossible 4:

1. “To save you time, your team has been chosen for you.”

In life, you choose your friends, but you don’t choose your family. Your family is chosen for you. There is a reason and a purpose behind every single person in your life. Every person in this world has value (whether they know it or not), and each one has been given specific people to whom they are to influence. You influence people with your thoughts, words, actions, habits and character. Things you say or don’t say, do or don’t do affect every single person in your sphere of influence, and they are watching you. In this world of social media, this is magnified one-hundred fold. Log in to your Facebook and/or Twitter account, and your team is there, watching you and waiting for you to influence them. You never know what small word, phrase, blog, tweet or status update may do to change someone’s life forever.

2. “Failure, to a terrorist, is just a ‘dress rehearsal’ for success.”

Oh boy. This is an entire blog entry in itself. I may just have to expound on this more thoroughly in a later entry. For now, I’ll just rundown the first few people that come to mind when I think of people failing forward:

-Abraham Lincoln

-Thomas Edison

-Helen Keller

-Mother Theresa

-Oprah

-M. Jordan

-Sylvester Stallone

-Jim Carrey

-Arnold Schwarzenegger

                    Sidenote: the aforementioned are NOT terrorists (most of them, anyway, haha just
                    kidding); they are people who have failed many times but considered their failures as
                    ‘dress rehearsals’ for success. I will not go into detail in this particular entry, so consider it
                    a foreshadowing of one to come.

        3. “In your country, a “potential” terrorist IS a terrorist." Treat every person not as they are, but 

            as they are destined to be. Many times we can look at teenagers as rowdy, rebellious troublemakers.             What would change if we instead chose to see them as our future leaders of our world and nation,                 the people who will be taking care of our children’s children? How differently would we think, act,                 and speak to our teenagers? This past summer, I was privileged to participate in my church’s                         Vacation Bible School, a week-long kids’ camp where we ministered to over 300 kids in our inner-c             city. It changed my life. I never been in an environment where I felt that my every move was                           influencing future leaders from time to come. These young people were potential teenagers, who                   become potential adults (again, not terrorists). When you choose to look at people not just as they                 are, but as what they could be, a whole new level of respect emerges, and your entire demeanor                   towards everything begins to change.

          4. “Acknowledge. ACKNOWLEDGE!”
             When an action, order, or request is given, ALWAYS get a confirmation. This is something I am                  understanding the value of first-hand, working as a ministry leader. This past weekend we held our                annual White Elephant Christmas party at church. The turnout was
             great, but there was some people that did not bring what they were assigned to bring.
             This was a good learning experience for me. Even though I IN-formed my people about the                          assignment, I did not CON-firm from my people, which then resulted in a less-than
             perfect execution. Lesson of the day? ACKNOWLEDGE! =)

          5. “The codes is not the mission – Hendrix is.”

 There is a core group of teachings we instill in our church that distinguish us from any other  organization. It is completely ours, yet completely duplicable. They are the teachings which reveal to  the student each mystery: Purpose. Identity. Nature. Mission.

                                                                  Purpose: WHY you are

                                                                  Identity: WHO you are

                                                                  Nature: HOW you are

                                                                  Mission: WHAT you are supposed to do

Ever since the beginning of time, people have been asking these questions about themselves, and unfortunately, many die with the answers having eluded them. Some know their purpose, but not their identity. Others know their identity, but not their purpose. Still others know their mission, but don’t know either their purpose, identity, or nature. All four are necessary to the health and well-being of human fully alive.

In the movie, Tom Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, shouts to his comrade, “The codes are not the mission – Hendrix is!” Hunt was absolutely clear on his mission (he has obviously been successful at distinguishing it between the other four teachings, since the movie has successfully reached its fourth installment). Although finding the codes were an essential part of the plan, he knew that just being fixated on the codes was not the end of the story; it was simply a part of the overall picture.

How many times in life do we get fixated on things that are important, but not that important? Money is important, but not that important. School, careers, reputation, family, friends, dreams, goals, health. All of these are important. VERY important. But in light of eternity, how important are they? My website is entitled “15,000 Days.” This is a title intended to push you, my dear reader, toward an eternal perspective on life. Yes, make your money. Yes, go to school if that’s your thing. Yes, get healthy. But do so in light of the fact that there are other things in life that outlast even the aforementioned ambitions. What are they? Scripture says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; it is the glory of kings to search a matter out (Proverbs 25:2).” What are they, you ask? Search for them, and I believe you’ll find them.

6. “Moreau was not the mission!”

Again, Hunt was clear on his mission and communicated it to his comrades. He stayed focused on the plan, and made sure they stayed focused on the plan.

7. “I’m not buying; I’m selling [Selling what?]. The future.”

Know the role that you play in relationship with the future. Knowing who you are (identity) is essential to understanding what you do (mission) and how you do it (nature). The more solid you are in these three areas determines how effective you will be in “selling” the future. These three facets, however, are incomplete without having a clear understanding of your purpose. What is your purpose, you ask? That will be a topic covered on a future date (pun intended).

8. “What have you been doing? [Helping old friends, making new ones…]”

Love it! This was asked during a dialogue in the movie. What do you say when someone asks you, “what’s new?” Is it the typical, “oh nothing much?” If so, responding this way gives a fresh new response, especially if you are a networker, like me. I’m a networker, meaning that I intentionally spend time building and maintaining relationships throughout my life. I love people, so I value relationships – moreso than money- because people are more valuable than money. In fact, when you have a deeper, stronger love for people, you’ll find that many times they will actually give you money! Givers gain.

9. “Yes! Commit! Jump!”

Ethan Hunt said this when his colleague was hesitant to jump from a high elevation. I don’t blame the guy either. It’s one thing to be fearless (and reckless?) like Tom Cruise’s character, but it’s a whole other thing to instill that same fearlessness in your colleague. True leadership is not having your followers watch you do something spectacular, but actually inspiring your followers to be spectacular themselves.”

10. “Otmeha – Cancel”

In Russian, this word is translated as “cancel.” Here is where my evangelical side comes out. There is freedom and hope in life because Jesus cancelled all our sins by making a public spectacle of them on the cross (Col 2:15). Without this “divine cancellation” there truly is no hope or freedom in life; without Christ, the mission we have on Earth truly is impossible.