There is a drive in most human beings to have a direction in life. We want to contribute and be a part of something. We want to have a sustaining significance in the world, an identity that captures our lives.
In our modern world it what is what we call the 'career' and, essentially, we have developed an entire society geared around it, where there is this 'thing' that becomes the point of our lives and our purpose in the world. Our culture is structured in a way where this is the central engine of our existence. This is why when you meet someone for the first time, it is practically second nature to ask, "So what do you do?" Which really could be answered a million different ways because we all do a million different things every single day. But the question is never in reference to those things. Both people instinctively know that "What do you do?" is simply a reference to the 'career' or the job or the vocational track...the 'thing'.
It dominates our identity.
And this is simply how our society works. You grow up, go to school, and it all sets you up to finally do the 'thing'. Which means that our first twenty or so years of life are about discovering what you plan to do for the next 45. Everything is geared towards "what you do".
Naturally, then, we end up with a lot of people asking lots of questions about this 'thing' and many are simply left wondering: "What am I supposed to do with my life? What is my 'thing' that I'm supposed to find?" Because when you create such strict and rigid structures about this 'thing' you are supposed to be doing then it puts a lot of pressure on you to be sure to find it. Which quickly just becomes anxiety and stress and searching to figure it all out. Despite the innumerable things we are already doing and participating in, we neglect them in hope of finding this bigger thing...the thing that will give you a title and a business card.
And for some people they've found "it". They have stumbled into this particular thing and they can step back and say, "This is my purpose in life." And that is great. The career, the job, the field, whatever it may be, they are doing it and it fulfills every single part of their soul. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
The problem is that an experience like this is pretty rare.
Because there are many people who go their entire lives with no "it". They never end up 'doing' anything that fits this particular societal definition and answers the question, "So what do you do?". They just scatter around doing all sorts of things never having something particular that they've latched onto, feeling as if they've missed something.
The problem is that some of these people who don't have the 'thing' are actually just as fulfilled as the people who do.
Which raises some questions about what the point actually is here. That maybe there is something bigger than just finding the thing you are supposed to do. Maybe it is bigger than a job or career or title for what you 'do'.
And it all comes back to a culture that has gotten caught up in discerning our calling as if there is a hidden vocation out there and by the time you've gone to college, hopefully you've found it. Our lives have been shaped by a culture that treats what we do in the world as a search and rescue mission for some lost object out in the depths of the ocean that hopefully we end up finding.
But what if there is more to it than that?
What if the way our culture has portrayed as the entire way of figuring out your purpose and calling is actually just one small part of it?
We get caught up in this language of 'the plan' for our lives and trying to find out whatever that is, but the only thing it has really done is leave people feeling overwhelmed and lost. So maybe thinking of it as a 'plan' is actually the wrong way to think of it. Maybe that whole idea is more of a fiction than most people think. Because I've seen people get so caught up in figuring out the plan that they end up missing their purpose that is actually just sitting right in front of them.
So we just need to say it.
There is no sealed envelope with a card inside that tells you what you are supposed to do.
The point isn't a 'thing'.
It is something bigger than that.
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There are some books that are part of this composition of writings we call that Bible that are sort of questionable. While reading them there is this penetrating question looming in your mind with the thought, "How did this get in there?" You read it and it just isn't what you think of when you picture the Bible.
Ecclesiastes is one of those writings.
It is essentially a book written by a guy who had done it all and seen it all and had everything and he is looking back and his conclusions of life and the world come out to be very murky and challenging, raising more questions than giving answers.
So it is a really good picture of what life is actually like.
It talks a lot about death and the temporariness of everything and how things don't always seem to make sense and that not much is really 'fair'. It is a writing that, if we are honest, truly resonates with the soul.
You are born and then you die and the rest of life is just sort of like vapor.
Encouraging?
Well that depends on your definition of encouragement.
Honest?
Yes.
Now, throughout this seemingly dark fog of a writing, the author seems to be up to something. There is a word that the author uses in the midst of the talk of death and vapor-ness that points to the author's hope for us.
It is the Hebrew word olam.
It is a word that carries the meaning of that which exists outside of time and space. So there is the world of being born and dying and toiling for nothing and all the chaos that happens between your first breath and your last, and then there is the world of olam. The world where there is no progression of time.
So essentially, this is what the author is doing within this writing: he paints a picture of this created world where things don't always go so well, where life comes and passes and is over, and right in the middle of this the author throws in the reminder that we can still have olam. You can work and toil. You can gain all these things only for them to be handed over to someone who doesn't deserve them after you've died. You can eat and drink and enjoy, but you are still gonna die someday. You can experience all the different contrasting emotions and experiences and they will all end.
But no matter what, you can still have olam.
I once heard someone explain that it is a bit like the sand on the beach. You live in the sand and when you are born you begin playing in the sand, building and making and doing, but eventually, no matter what, a day is going to come when the water will move onto the sand and wash away and everything will go with it. All the sand will be taken away and whatever you built in the sand will be gone.
Except for the experience. Because you can't take that away.
And finally, at the end of the writing, the author is sort of recapping this whole perspective of life and the world, talking about the process of how we slowly are just moving towards the day when we are no more, but ends by saying, "Don't forget olam." Bones grow weak, vision fade, hearing falters, you lose energy, everything slows down, yet the vapor tendencies of the world don't change a bit and then it is over.
So before that happens, you have to remember olam.
As the world closes before you and the waves are making their way towards your sand, remember that the point of this whole thing is to get the experience of the olam kind of world.
Which is essentially about expressing God's way for the world. It is the peace and the joy and the experience of the pure, unadulterated goodness that God created each and every one of us for.
And Ecclesiastes is trying to tell us that in the midst of all that we do and see and feel and go through in our lives, that we are supposed to be finding that. Because in the end, that will be all that is left.
Olam is simply the gift of living.
It is the gift that takes us beyond the arc of life and the experiences of time and space.
And apparently our only task is to find it.
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Notice what the author doesn't say.
The author doesn't say, "All of these different things will happen during your life, you live and then you die, so make sure you get your purpose figured out before it is all said and done. Make sure you get into the right career and go to the right places and follow the plan."
No. It has nothing to do with finding a particular 'thing' that you are supposed to do and that, then, is the purpose of life.
For the author, purpose has nothing to do with a 'thing'. It is not about something you 'do'.
Because you can play in the sand however you like. You can do whatever you want with the sand. You can experience the world in all sorts of different ways. But the sand is not the point. What you do is not the point.
Because that is all going to get washed away. Whatever you do in the sand will be gone. Whatever 'thing' you happen to make won't matter. So don't get caught up in that. Just make sure whatever you do, you find olam.
Because the point is that you find the gift.
Which makes the whole concept of purpose and calling less like a plan and a little bit more like a map.
You start and you are in a spot on the map and from there you just start going. And wherever you go, it isn't right or wrong, it just happens to be where you are and that's it.
Because the point isn't a destination. The point isn't actually to get anywhere. It is just about genuinely experiencing wherever you happen to be on the map.
There's a man named Abraham Heschel who was talking once and said, "I live my life like the tip of a pencil. Wherever the tip of that pencil is on the paper is the only place it is. So wherever I am, whether it be lecturing in front of people, riding in a taxi, or eating a meal, that moment is the only place I am. That moment is the most important moment in the world; the only moment that matters."
Which is what moving through the map is all about.
You just start and pick a direction and go and just make sure to be there.
And its not to say that God didn't create you a particular way. It is saying that there is a way God created you, but that God has left room for that to manifests itself however it needs to. But the only way this will make sense is if we can truly understand that the point isn't what you do, the point is the experience of whatever you happen to be doing. It isn't about getting anywhere, it is just about properly discovering where you already are on the map. Somehow we have missed that the 'thing' and the 'it', the career or what you 'do', that they aren't actually the point, they are just the result of where you've happened to go.
Which doesn't mean that there won't be 'things', but just that those 'things' you do are just a medium to expressing the real point. They are just one option of finding the gift and we have to learn to put this in its proper place...especially in our culture.
Which means our calling is to just take the rawness of our being and keep exploring the map. Take this way God created you, this olam that is inside of you, and go. And maybe you keep going in the same direction the whole time, but maybe you don't. Maybe you end up turning completely around and going somewhere else on the map. But that is ok because you still get the experience and that is what is meaningful. If you just sit around talking about the map, trying to pinpoint where you think you are meant to go, you will never get anywhere and you will never find the gift.
And the map isn't just aimless wandering. You just have to ask, "What are those things that when I do them, I feel like I could do them forever? What is something that I couldn't imagine someone would actually pay me to do because it is such a natural part of me? What is something that I have that the world could use more of?"
Which could turn into 'things' and 'careers' and business cards, but really they are just ways to keep directing our movement in the map every single day.
It is less about finding something and more about letting this thing God has placed inside you be your guide.
To keep going after the olam.
Because whatever direction you go on the map, the point isn't about doing some 'thing'.
The point is the gift.
The point is experiencing the world that God created everything to be and it can be found in all sorts of different ways. The point is to get caught up in that.
So...
"What do you do?"
Or maybe we should just start asking;
"What direction do you happen to be going?
How are you experiencing olam today?"
Because that's actually the point isn't it?
So enjoy your map. And may you find the gift of olam everywhere your journey takes you.
