Purpose

 

This post was written before I heard about the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas some days ago.  I am well aware of that situation; however, I chose today to present those thoughts that I have already written.  I try to not insert politics into this Thursday Thought series.  I will only say for now that something is horribly, horribly broken in this society.  My great concern is that there may well be nothing government can do to fix it.  It can, I think, help mitigate and reduce the occurrence of these kinds of tragedies.  However, as a Christian, I believe the only real fix is Jesus Christ and a great, national as well as personal repentance and return to submission to the God of the universe and Jesus Christ His son.

I’ll leave it at that, at least for right now, and go on to what I had originally planned.

Steve Hartman is a reporter for CBS News.  His assignment is and has been for I think about 25 years to travel the nation producing stories about ordinary people doing ordinary things, living life day to day.  His emphasis has been on those stories which promote kindness and service to others.  This kind of story doesn’t sound very exciting, but the reality is that his segments every Friday on the evening news are some of the most-watched.  His stories are called, “On The Road with Steve Hartman.”  You can also find many of these stories on YouTube.

During the COVID lockdown, Hartman, along with his daughter Merril and son Emmitt, put together a summer “class” series for children highlighting various forms of human goodness, using prior “On The Road” pieces to make the point.  Kindness, honesty, courage, justice, friendship, gratitude, and other attributes of the human spirit were highlighted.  One of those attributes was “purpose.”

I’ve watched most of those “classes”, which ran 16 to 18 minutes each and are also available on YouTube.  The class on purpose especially resonated with me.  In that session, Hartman featured four “On The Road” segments…a bus driver whose bus students are his surrogate family, an ex-NFL player who could barely read when he went to Alabama to play football, yet determined to learn to read and became a children’s book author, a ballet dancer/instructor in her late 70’s who is still going strong in her profession, and a widower who so loved  his departed spouse that he created a museum in her honor in his back yard.  Each person featured had a unique purpose in life that was obvious to all.

Following the airing of the “Purpose” lesson, Hartman received a letter from Alana Calhoun.  Ms. Calhoun is an adolescent girl who had watched Hartman's summer series for kids, including the series focused on purpose.  She was so moved by that lesson that she wrote to Mr. Hartman.  Here is part of what she said regarding her own purpose in life.

When I thought about what I could do with my life to change the world, I was stumped.  I'm still an adolescent.  I can't drive; I can't work at a hospital; I'm not even allowed to use my stove unsupervised.  So, what can I do?  What is my purpose?

What if my purpose isn't to change the world?  What if my purpose is something as small as helping people in need when I see them?  This isn't something that can solve hunger or stop terrorism.  For me, maybe doing something small is enough to inspire others to do something big.  And that is enough to change the world.

This is Jay again.  Alana Calhoun has, at her tender age, found wisdom beyond her years.  She has discovered that purpose doesn’t have to be some grandiose thing that costs billions of dollars and changes the world right away.  It can be the smallest things.  The routine kindnesses.  The ordinary ways we help others.  The words of comfort we say or the smile we give.  These, I believe, are what Ms. Calhoun meant when she talked about doing something small being enough to inspire others to do something big.

Not many of us are equipped to do the big things.  Not many of us have our own private foundations or organizations that can tackle the big issues of life and culture.  But we all have the ability to affect, for the better or worse, those we come in contact with on a daily basis, mostly one person at a time.

I am reminded of this pretty much daily as I work with those who come to our church door for some kind of help or service.  We can’t do a lot of what some would call the big things.  We don’t have apartments that we can give to those without shelter.  We can’t afford to buy motel rooms.  We can’t purchase a car for them.  We can’t gift them with ten thousand dollars.  There’s a lot of the big stuff we can’t do.

But we can give them some food or water.  We can help out with some fuel for a vehicle.  We can help someone pay a utility bill.  But one of the biggest things I’ve found that we can do is just listen to them.  Listen to their story.  Listen to them as they tell of life and living…their struggles and their hopes.  We can take the time to validate them as human beings and afford them the dignity and respect that they should inherently have as humans.

So much of that is missing from the lives of so many.  Many of those who come to our doors have been shoved off to the side, ignored as if they aren’t even there, and treated as less than human all too often.  To give them our time and attention is something they crave and are very appreciative of, even if we for some reason cannot help them financially.

I have to wonder if Alana Calhoun has yet found those small things that she can do which might inspire others to bigger and greater things.  I know I have over the years often found that the small things…the little-noticed things…those things which seem so routine and ordinary…can indeed be sparks to cause change far beyond my own sphere of influence.

What is your purpose in life?  Why are you here?  Yes, we who are Christians know we are here to serve and love the Lord God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.  And we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Hopefully, you indeed are loving your Lord God whole heartedly.  And hopefully, you have found, or are finding what it means to love your neighbor…as that is the second of the two great purposes of the Christian life.

Loving one’s neighbor can be as simple as a greeting, smile, or a listening ear.  These kinds of things can often move mountains, and just as often, that mountain-moving is unbeknownst to us.  Purpose.  Why are you here?  What is your purpose?

 

Blessings,