There have been many throughout history who have sold their birthright for a mess of pottage, who have given up their great purpose or higher destiny in exchange for some, typically small comfort. Such a trade brings a momentary relief from the pressure which devolves upon anyone who seeks to raise the bar in their living, but to exist without a clearly defined sense of higher purpose is profoundly frustrating and dreadfully unfulfilling.
The privilege of living is a privilege worth losing your life for.
A wise man once said that you have to lose your life to find it. What does this mean? To me it means that you must be willing to let go of your attachment to anything that stands in the way of the revelation of your true purpose.
Note that I said “let go of your attachment to” and not just “let go of.” The resources within your reach can and should be put to use in the furtherance of your higher purpose. The ascetic mistakenly assumes, for instance, that money is the root of all evil after failing to realize that it is the love of money that triggers the avalanche for most people. Money, things, etc. are neutral. The purpose to which they are employed ascribes the value so many mistakenly assume to be intrinsic.
“Let us look upon life as a glorious privilege, of fine service, not dull servitude, of splendid giving rather than petty getting, of unselfish trusteeship rather than selfish ownership, of seeing it as our triumph, in the greatness of our powers and possibilities, over life’s trials and sorrows that cloud-like dim and dusk its beauty, its wonder and its message. Let us face life each day with gladness that we are alive, that it inspires us to greater, finer, freer, fuller living, and let our joy note ring out clear and exultant, not that we ignore life’s trial, hardship and evil, but because we see beauties others pass by, feel underlying all its discord the eternal music of some great purpose, some higher destiny.” ~ William George Jordan
Gregory Hake 
I really like this post! Great points, especially about the ‘love’ of money. A misunderstanding of a quote like that can quickly have one off the path!
LikeLike
This post gets to the root of all of the personal despair that we see in the world. We all know that depression is a common occurrence in the world, but did we ever think why that would be (beyond the answer of brain chemical imbalance)? I think it is because people go through life with the very depressing paradigm of birth-school-work-retire-die, rinse and repeat for all eternity. There is more to being alive than that, but each person has to make that discovery for themselves. And it is a discovery worth losing your life for.
LikeLike
Life, as we know, is never static. As we live our lives in service to our higher purpose, our sense of that higher purpose natually refines, expands and evolves. This makes everything so interesting and exciting!
LikeLike
Our individual purposes are part of a vast and inherently harmonious purpose. Purpose is therefore distinct for each one but not isolated or disharmonious to the genuine purposes of others. All clashing, conflict and disharmony could be said to be the evidence of misunderstanding in this sense. So many immediate circumstances seem to supercede this grand awareness, but only because perspective is lost and we forget who we are and what we are a part of.
I appreciate your daily memory-jogging approach, firmly but gently and consistently pointing to the simple and glorious truth. The only ultimate solution to the nightmare of the human condition is to awaken from it!
LikeLike
Great post. The dull servitude that many live is the “time to make the donuts” thinking. Why am I making them? What purpose is it serving? If the answer is to live then I’m back to bedrock question, why am I living? It is not esoteric but very practical to answer this question as soon as you realize the importance. When we understand the purpose, we can begin to see the plan and everything we do or have been given is seen as an asset to fullfilling it. Life becomes a privilege not a sentence.
LikeLike
Owning things vs being owned by them leaves you the freedom to enjoy them as long as they are relevant to living your life in service to your higher purpose. The greatest loss is when we lose the understanding of our purpose as that gives meaning to everything. Wonderful post, a true key to not wasting a perfectly good life . Thanks Gregg.
LikeLike
Happy saturday! Life is a privilege and it’s not worth living as a prisoner of our own making. Why not let go of those things that limit us and let go to those qualities that will make us greater people.
LikeLike