Life's Big Question

Have you ever wondered “What on earth am I here for?” It is a question that plagues human beings as we search to find meaning and purpose in life. As a matter of fact, we spend most of our lives trying to figure out the answer to that very question.

This is a meaning question. It is one of the questions we are here on earth to answer. Another way of phrasing it would be, “Who am I here to serve?” Our earth is a classroom planet. That means that everything we experience in life is meant to teach us something about ourselves, others, and the planet we live on. These lessons, the things we learn by going through our experiences, are the skills we learn in order to then serve others.

If we were to look at our life experiences as lessons, instead of mistakes, life might make a whole lot more sense. The trap we fall into when we don’t realize this is to over-identify with our life story and circumstances. In other words, we look at life through the lens of ego, instead of through the lens of our higher calling, or soul purpose. Some refer to this as the Higher Self.

The problem with looking at life through the lens of ego is that ego distorts. If we have met with successes in our life, then ego will tell us that we are better than others. We will tend to judge other persons by our own successes. On the other hand, if we have met with difficult times, and experienced many failures, our ego will tell us that we have accomplished nothing and that our life is of no account.

Both viewpoints keep us from understanding our higher calling and successfully answering the question “Who am I here to serve?” By viewing life as a teacher of lessons, then we can begin to understand what it is we have been learning. So you can see, part of the secret to understanding whom we are here to serve, is asking, “What have my lessons in life been about?” “What have I learned from the experiences I have gone through?” “What skills, insights, and abilities do I have because of these experiences?” Answering these questions becomes the key to understanding who we are here to serve in this life.

Life lessons tend to revolve around different issues—power/control, materialism, sexuality, and relationships are four big areas. By looking at your experiences, especially your “failures” or areas of difficulty, you can start to understand what skills you have learned in those areas and start to identify what some of your issues are. If you have power/materialism issues, for example, your main failures will be reflected in those areas (Enron).

Whether or not we learn from our mistakes, however, is entirely up to us. We will continue to experience the same things over and over until we do learn, and then we will be free to move on to the next lesson.

The movie “Groundhog Day” describes this so well. The character in the story (Bill Murray) has some major control/relationship issues and has the opportunity to relive the same day over and over again until he finally figures out what he needs to learn and starts behaving in a new way. Life is a lot like that. We have the opportunity to learn are lessons or keep repeating them over and over.

The only way we learn compassion in this life, is to experience hardships. The only way to learn patience is to have it stretched! The very difficulties in our lives that we once viewed as failure, we will eventually learn to bless because they have produced the fruit of something beautiful in our lives. This fruit when used by our Higher Self is what we use in service to others.

If we have experienced lessons in failed relationships, we will be able to serve those on the path who have not yet learned those lessons. If we have struggled with materialism, we will be able to share the joy of the gift of mastery through giving with those who have not yet learned. If we have been slaves to our sexuality and abused others through this, we will be able to share the lessons of self-control and the gift of honoring others and the understanding of the sanctity of our own bodies. If we have sought to control others, we will learn to share our lessons in understanding the Sacred Viewpoint of All. If we have abused our power, we will be able to share the lessons of the Law of One, that everything is a part of everything else, and that when we take advantage of what we consider weak, we hurt everything else, including ourselves.

Difficulties and hard lessons are the gifts of the Universe that burn off the dross of our ego and connect us with our Higher Self. This is the image of God that wants to be manifested in our lives as a witness to the beauty of the love of God’s kingdom. It is only after we learn to connect with something greater than ourselves and the limited orbit or our ego (self) that we can grow into a greater understanding of our purpose in life (Self). It is from this viewpoint that we are better able to answer the question, “Who am I here to serve?”

Begin today to see the lessons in your life, the “failures”, as a gift. God cares enough about you to bother refining you into something worthwhile. Rejoice that you are called to serve and that you are called to learn.

Comments

Unknown said…
When looking from the perspective of the "Self" it is very easy to fall into our ego selves again on a daily basis. And as you implied our ego acts as a leech on our spirit. I think we all would like to avoid this trap as often we can. I notice that whenever I start to take time for Self reflection (not ego reflection) in the form of meditation or studying the bible, falling into this trap becomes easier to avoid. -JJ
Julie Smith said…
Jesse, You are right on with this comment. Our goal is to eventually have our soul calling the shots instead of our ego and then to eventually have our soul submit to Spirit. We are then a reliable light worker for Spirit and can be counted on to be used in service for others. When our ego is in control we are on again off again and are fairly unreliable as workers. Spiritual practice changes our locus of control so to speak. -JS