Somewhere in my car is a walking stick - not the kind you use to walk with, but the bug.
Every time I see it, it grosses me out but I can't bear to think of getting near it to get it out of the car. It's the same problem I have with roaches.
So I just let it do its thing, hoping that it's not gonna crawl on my neck while I'm driving.
As I looked up the word "walking stick" to see if there are any interesting things about it, I learned something pretty cool. When they're in the wild (or a vehicle), they'll sway back and forth to mimic vegetation swaying in the wind. Also, they camouflage themselves with their surroundings.
And so, this little dude is somewhere in my car, camouflaging itself to the color of my seats. When I drive with the windows down, it's probably mimicking the motion of any trash that's blowing around on the floorboards.
The problem is, one day this little guy's gonna creep up on me when I'm not expecting it. And, when stuff like that happens (like the one time a wasp got caught in the car while I was driving), I nearly swerve off the road in panic.
So what's better? Get rid of it so I don't have to worry about it anymore, or let it stay there, hoping that that frightful day isn't gonna come?
It would seem that the first answer would probably be the most logical, but the fear of having to get near the thing in order to remove it keeps me from taking any action. And so, the choice to let it linger and live in fear rules the day.
What if we expanded this silly concept to more realistic issues?
This morning, I woke up and literally felt like I was hungover. I don't know how I woke up when I did, because I set my alarm clock for 6:30 p.m. and not a.m. I had this overwhelming feeling of apathy and disinterest in life. I didn't want to go to work, and I damn sure didn't want to pray.
And just like the camouflaged walking stick lingering around in the car, this thought came to mind: "What's the point of it all?"
The question lingers underneath the surface. It hides underneath all the good things in life. It waits for the perfect time - when things aren't going exactly as they should. It waits for the slightest imperfection, and them pounces out of the darkness.
So, what is the point of it all?
While this question sounds elementary and archaic at the same time, my naked self - left to my own mind - is bound to the answer: "There's no point of anything."
And so, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and decade after decade, I wake up to this state of pointlessness. I can't find anything worth fighting for, dying for, or living for. It's all futile, and in the words of Solomon, "There's nothing new under the sun."
And the thing is, I can't see how it could be any different left to my own human devices. I can't see how the thinking that gets me to a state of pointlessness and meaninglessness could be the same thinking that gets me somewhere different.
Enter God (or Divine Being, or Spirit Whisperer, or Allah, or The Guy Upstairs, or The Lover Pursuing Her Bridegroom, or Whatever Name You Want to Call He/She/It).
Another word I could throw in there is Phenomenon. That probably catches what I'm trying to get at the best.
First of all, I have nothing to give to this God.
You may be a great preacher, listener, pray-er, bible studier, or whatever, and may have this electric sensation that God is everywhere with you and flowing through your veins.
I don't have this experience.
What I do experience (whenever I attempt it) is, phenomenal.
This feeling of what's the point of it all anyways has a solution. But, it doesn't just happen. And, chances are that I'm gonna wake up tomorrow with that same question lingering in my brain as if it's hard-wired to think that way every chance it gets.
The solution is communication with this Phenomenal Being.
I know it sounds crazy, but if you're willing to go to any length to get out of the state of what's the point of it all anyways like I am, then you're willing to utter up the two or three words that you don't really want to say because you're so fucked up in the head, but then you do it anyways and finish with something like, "I'm done. That's all I have," and maybe on a good day, "Help me."
And, something happens.
Something phenomenal happens. Over the next few minutes and hours, you start thinking that maybe there is a little meaning in what I'm going to do. Maybe there is a point in what I'm doing right now. And maybe after a few hours, you forgot you even woke up feeling like death because now you're laughing at some stupid joke your coworker just said, or you're trying to do a good job at work.
And then you get an opportunity to help someone else (who would have seen that coming when you felt like death this morning?).
The alternative (choosing to dwell in the state of what's the point of it all anyways) is not a fun state of being to live in. I know because it's my defaulted, hard-wired state.
My point is, we weren't created to live what's the point of it all anyways kinds of lives. We were created to thrive, to have fun, to create, and to love. And, we have this God who loves to thrive with us, and have fun with us, and create with us, and love with us.
And, one more thing. We don't pray in order to summon up some dead ancestor so that we can somehow get in touch with ancient wisdom. We pray so that we'll be awake to what this God is already doing.
We'll be awake to the reality that this life does have purpose and meaning and creativity and passion. This God isn't boring, but is constantly inviting us to wake up to Ultimate Reality, the antithesis of what's the point of it all anyways.
Every time I see it, it grosses me out but I can't bear to think of getting near it to get it out of the car. It's the same problem I have with roaches.
So I just let it do its thing, hoping that it's not gonna crawl on my neck while I'm driving.
As I looked up the word "walking stick" to see if there are any interesting things about it, I learned something pretty cool. When they're in the wild (or a vehicle), they'll sway back and forth to mimic vegetation swaying in the wind. Also, they camouflage themselves with their surroundings.
And so, this little dude is somewhere in my car, camouflaging itself to the color of my seats. When I drive with the windows down, it's probably mimicking the motion of any trash that's blowing around on the floorboards.
The problem is, one day this little guy's gonna creep up on me when I'm not expecting it. And, when stuff like that happens (like the one time a wasp got caught in the car while I was driving), I nearly swerve off the road in panic.
So what's better? Get rid of it so I don't have to worry about it anymore, or let it stay there, hoping that that frightful day isn't gonna come?
It would seem that the first answer would probably be the most logical, but the fear of having to get near the thing in order to remove it keeps me from taking any action. And so, the choice to let it linger and live in fear rules the day.
What if we expanded this silly concept to more realistic issues?
This morning, I woke up and literally felt like I was hungover. I don't know how I woke up when I did, because I set my alarm clock for 6:30 p.m. and not a.m. I had this overwhelming feeling of apathy and disinterest in life. I didn't want to go to work, and I damn sure didn't want to pray.
And just like the camouflaged walking stick lingering around in the car, this thought came to mind: "What's the point of it all?"
The question lingers underneath the surface. It hides underneath all the good things in life. It waits for the perfect time - when things aren't going exactly as they should. It waits for the slightest imperfection, and them pounces out of the darkness.
So, what is the point of it all?
While this question sounds elementary and archaic at the same time, my naked self - left to my own mind - is bound to the answer: "There's no point of anything."
And so, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and decade after decade, I wake up to this state of pointlessness. I can't find anything worth fighting for, dying for, or living for. It's all futile, and in the words of Solomon, "There's nothing new under the sun."
And the thing is, I can't see how it could be any different left to my own human devices. I can't see how the thinking that gets me to a state of pointlessness and meaninglessness could be the same thinking that gets me somewhere different.
Enter God (or Divine Being, or Spirit Whisperer, or Allah, or The Guy Upstairs, or The Lover Pursuing Her Bridegroom, or Whatever Name You Want to Call He/She/It).
Another word I could throw in there is Phenomenon. That probably catches what I'm trying to get at the best.
First of all, I have nothing to give to this God.
You may be a great preacher, listener, pray-er, bible studier, or whatever, and may have this electric sensation that God is everywhere with you and flowing through your veins.
I don't have this experience.
What I do experience (whenever I attempt it) is, phenomenal.
This feeling of what's the point of it all anyways has a solution. But, it doesn't just happen. And, chances are that I'm gonna wake up tomorrow with that same question lingering in my brain as if it's hard-wired to think that way every chance it gets.
The solution is communication with this Phenomenal Being.
I know it sounds crazy, but if you're willing to go to any length to get out of the state of what's the point of it all anyways like I am, then you're willing to utter up the two or three words that you don't really want to say because you're so fucked up in the head, but then you do it anyways and finish with something like, "I'm done. That's all I have," and maybe on a good day, "Help me."
And, something happens.
Something phenomenal happens. Over the next few minutes and hours, you start thinking that maybe there is a little meaning in what I'm going to do. Maybe there is a point in what I'm doing right now. And maybe after a few hours, you forgot you even woke up feeling like death because now you're laughing at some stupid joke your coworker just said, or you're trying to do a good job at work.
And then you get an opportunity to help someone else (who would have seen that coming when you felt like death this morning?).
The alternative (choosing to dwell in the state of what's the point of it all anyways) is not a fun state of being to live in. I know because it's my defaulted, hard-wired state.
My point is, we weren't created to live what's the point of it all anyways kinds of lives. We were created to thrive, to have fun, to create, and to love. And, we have this God who loves to thrive with us, and have fun with us, and create with us, and love with us.
And, one more thing. We don't pray in order to summon up some dead ancestor so that we can somehow get in touch with ancient wisdom. We pray so that we'll be awake to what this God is already doing.
We'll be awake to the reality that this life does have purpose and meaning and creativity and passion. This God isn't boring, but is constantly inviting us to wake up to Ultimate Reality, the antithesis of what's the point of it all anyways.
Don't feed it.
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