On Purpose

One of our instructors in the Living With Life-Threatening Illness class indicated that people have hope as they die because they feel they have a purpose in life. So, I looked up the meaning of purpose in my dictionary. The definition revolves our desire to intend to do something, or it refers to a reasonable, rational end to an act, a creative effort, or use. Also, when we have a purpose, we are determined - resolute even - in achieving a practical result, effect, or advantage. It speaks to imagination, design, and forward thinking. It also speaks to a need of the ability to think. And, as far as we know, of all the things in this universe, only humans can do that.

So, I applied this definition to our purpose on earth. It had to have reasonable, rational intent. And, since we didn’t place ourselves here, as best we can tell, it had to originate from somewhere outside of us and our present understanding. And, indeed, any purpose we may have would have to be tied to our ability to think and understand. Understanding would have to be part of what we call purpose. It would also follow that learning, in order to gather understanding, would be part of being able to have the intent to do. Our purpose, then, is also tied to our learning.

We are certainly learning from the time we are born – to eat, stay warm, get along – to survive in general. We protect ourselves, our things, our children and people we care about, our systems of behavior and codes of conduct. These things help us live better, longer. We survive. But, so what?

I wondered if we are learning the wrong things. Nothing of this life remains, does it? What could possibly “remain”? And, if it remains, where and in what condition does it do that? Good question.

The things we take to survive (food, clothing, shelter, reproduction) cannot be tied to our purpose because they do not exist beyond our life here. Earthly survival cannot be tied to our purpose on earth unless it is tied to a survival beyond this existence. Of course, we may have no purpose. But since I have hope (purpose), I write this paragraph. Hmmm, how circular… or how obvious.

Our ultimate purpose, as revealed in death, cannot be to take. It can only be to give and to learn from the experience of giving. Indeed, we have a tremendous capacity to have and then give away over the course of our lives. Problem is: we don’t. We focus on present survival for the most part. Hmmm.

So, if we give away our things and ourselves, what would we learn? If we give up this life, what are we giving it to and why? Purpose predisposes us to consider a design and intelligence outside of our understanding – something beyond and outside of this life. Seems logical. And, in order to have a larger purpose, we have to believe in something we can’t see or understand from our current perspective. We have to use our minds as we are convinced of something beyond our birth and death. We have to rationally consider the finite and the potential of infinite.

Our purpose will certainly be determined in the things we are convinced of. The most hopeful thing I can possibly rationalize is that something exists outside of this life. Something I cannot see or understand but that is no accident. Since purpose includes intent and thereby thought, my purpose must include something that thoughtfully created us. And, that creator (to personify) clearly thinks and acts well beyond my ability to understand or comprehend in any more than very basic ways from this point of view, and this creator chose (intent) to create us in our present condition. We all must be logically intertwined in a larger purpose that we are hoping to truly understand. Indeed, our dying would be part of our collective purposes and, given that death is beyond our control, we know that we have far less control over our lives than we imagine.

Now, you may say you have no purpose. You could hold tightly to every earthly thing to have nothing when you die (because nothing truly matters). Or you could take the chance of having a purpose and having everything (whatever that may be) when you die. If you are right, we both have nothing. If I am right, our creator will explain to us more clearly why expressions of giving were so important. And, our creator will explain to us why taking was so useless.

Seems I can only win here. At least in the long run. I wonder how long I’ll live after I’m dead. Hmmm.