“Awh Man” to that

Two years ago a student told me he felt he was put on the Earth to “gang bang” – that is to be a gang member. At least he had an answer when I asked him this question, “What’s your purpose here?” Most young people don’t know their purpose but maybe it’s because they’ve never been asked what it is. Really, how old do you have to be to grasp that you can be and already are part of something bigger than your self?

There is a collision when people learn a sense of purpose because they, I mean We, are confronted with an “Aw Man Crisis”. That’s when your purpose beckons you to move to a new career or city, break up with a significant other or create what doesn’t exist and you say “Aw Man!” The collision is between faith and purpose. Do we have faith to execute purpose?

My hunch is that it’s easier to live when you pretend to be ignorant of purpose. Life then becomes a comedy of random activity in which anything, including apathy, is justified. The sooner we ask young people, old people, ourselves to identify and respond to purpose, the less foreign it is. The less intimidating it is. It’s very possible that life is merely a drill until we discover and begin living according to purpose.