If you have started reading this post. STOP! Go back and watch this video. It’s about 13 minutes long and worth every second.
My son posted this on his Facebook page last night and left the comment “This is beautiful.” Now generally, when I see a post that someone says is beautiful, I watch it and say, “Meh.” But really, this is a beautiful video if for no other reason that it makes you think. REALLY think. If it didn’t, check your pulse.
It seems that once I reached my late 30s and realized that it was o.k. to feel, I’ve been on a bit of a mission. I don’t even think that mission is a proper word. I think that around the year 2000 I realized that I was on a journey. As part of that journey, I knew that I needed to quit thinking about myself and start to think of others. Thank God for that! No, really, thanks GOD for that. If it wasn’t for Him I’d be dead in either the physical or spiritual sense. Truthfully, I was dead in the spiritual sense. It was Him who brought me back to life.
As I watch this video, it was as if I was on this train with the other passengers, answering his questions. There were a handful of questions that the filmmaker, Luke Rudkowski, asked people which really stood out to me. I’m not sure if I even know the answers but I’m trying to find them.
Why are we here? I have to believe it’s for a better reason than to just take up space and oxygen on Earth. This is the million dollar question. In my somewhat cynical point of view, I also think it’s a question not many people care about. Look at society and what is happening (insert cynicism). And if people do care and continue to live life the way that society seems to be, then we are nothing more than a bunch of self-center people.
Back to the question–Why are we here? In a way, we are here in order to become the best versions of ourselves. For many, including me, that means being a Christian. As far as I’m concerned, if you aren’t Christian and you are still trying to become the best version of yourself, that’s o.k. I’m not here to push my Christianity on you. I hope you join me if you aren’t a Christian, because the changes He brought to my heart are what I want for everyone.
Anyway, when people begin to move outside of the world of “me” and begin to think of “we,” things change. That change begins, first and foremost, in the heart. If you don’t change your heart first, nothing will happen. The brain and heart are so interconnected that if your thought process has changed, chances are your heart has too. In my case, it was the softening of a hardened heart.
What motivates you more, fear or love? I was thrilled that people in the video gravitated more towards love than fear. I mean, if fear motivates you, generally you think more about yourself than others. If love is a motivating factor, your moving towards thinking of others first, and you secondly.
Think of how powerful love is. It is the single biggest emotion that we have, yet it has the ability to be pushed towards the back when things go wrong. There is one guarantee in life. We all want to be loved.
No, really, Think about that for a second. We ALL want to be loved. It is often when we feel unloved that we gravitate towards the negative. When you were a child, did you want to be angry?
Bitter?
Vengeful?
Self-centered?
Lonely?
Greedy?
or
Loved?
‘Nough said.
The video went on to ask about “what makes you happy” and “what is the meaning of life?” I think these two questions are really closely associated. To be truthful, they fall into the “why are we here” category. If you know why you are here, doesn’t that lead to happiness? Doesn’t that also lead to a closer understanding of the meaning of life? Honestly, I don’t know the answers to the questions. I think I have a better understanding of the questions, but not the answers. What I think might be the answer today, would be something completely different tomorrow. Maybe that’s why we are on this journey called life.
Happiness is a tough one for me to talk about. It wasn’t until the last 10 years that I feel like I’ve found happiness. I’m talking true happiness; the kind of happiness that brings an inner peace. Prior to 2000, I had incredibly happy segments of time (my marriage and birth of my children) but true inner peace didn’t exist. I credit God for helping that to happen. Luckily, He put people in my life (my wife, kids and friends) to help that come to fruition.
More than anything, we all have the ability to teach each other. So I’m curious. What do you think about this video?
Why are we here? What motivates you, love or fear? What makes you happy? What is the meaning of life?
Until next time,
Peace!
The meaning of life…. I stlll can not answer that question. I think if I could it would change…. and to be honest I hope it would change.
I hope one day I can find the peace you found. And maybe “the meaning of life” is what we are here to discover. If you find it let me know ;P
There’s this religious TV chanel my wife and me watch every now and than when there’s a good show on. But the minute they start talking about God we switch it off, since religion is something that irritates and annoys us.
The video your son put on his Facebook is wonderful. Thank you and thank your son for sharing that.
Now listening carefully to what all the people say, except for the Jehova witness in a very short remark nobody talks about God.
I don’t want to switch you off, Scott, since I like your posts about your family, about your teaching and about you. I can tell you’re a good man, a good husband and a good dad, and I’m happy for you you found your inner peace. I just wish you kept your God to yourself.
Of course, just like you, we are trying to become the best versions of ourselves. But during that journey I don’t need some sacred book, some priest or a supernatural figure to tell me the difference between good and bad. I believe in good people, and in the power of love, that’s enough to me.
As to The Questions in the video you’re asking your blogreaders to answer:
My son is in a difficult phase in his life and as a result of that life has become hard on my wife and me for the last two years. We are getting professional help, so we’re pretty sure in time things will get better. But in religion we do not find any comfort AT ALL. And we sure don’t feel much like thinking about questions as ‘what are we here for?’ or ‘what motivates us?’ and ‘what is the meaning of life?’, since all we do is just trying to survive mentally.
I’m sorry if I insult you by all this, Scott. If I have I didn’t mean to, believe me, but I had to get this off my chest. Keep posting!
Ruud-
I had the same view as you at one point in my life. I was actually an atheist and only believed in myself. I completely respect where you are coming from. I needed more. That’s what works for me. As far as your difficulties with your son and how draining it is for you, I understand. I experienced about seven years of fairly severe depression when I was dealing with PTSD from my journalism days. The last thing I would even consider was religion. But after seven years of the same misery, I had to be open to something else because my way wasn’t coming close to resolving my troubles.
I use my life and experiences as my testimony. God is a part of that. You are right, nobody mentions God in that video, but the thing is, I see God and his influences everywhere. It beats the black cloud that consumed me. I wasn’t seeing anything but my own misery. So, yeah, God is a big part my life and my families life. I have friends that don’t believe. That’s their choice as well as it is yours. We get along very well. Occasionally religion comes up and we have much the same conversation as you and I are now. There are no hard feelings on either side. Just as there are none now. It’s all good and I’m thrilled to be able to have this conversation with you.
I will talk about my faith when the need arises. I hope you respect that. See more, the message that I’m trying to express, rather being “blinded” by your dislike for religion. I do hope you continue to visit. I enjoy the dialogue that we have begun to have. I can tell from our conversations that you are an individual who is trying hard to become the best version of yourself. You can’t ask for more than that. How you obtain that is up to you. Take care and I’m sure we’ll be talking.
Scott
For some reason your post ended up in my spam, that’s why it took two days to respond. I just happen to notice it tonight.
Ruud- On this note, I’ll add that I feel much the same way that you do about God and religions in general. However, I had a friend going through a divorce and she once told me that when she was struggling, she would open up the bible to a random page and it would keep her going. Now, that is not something I would do. But, it got me thinking – why do I care? Who am I to judge what helps her? I love her, so shouldn’t I just be grateful something is making her keep going rather than judge it?
We all have aides on our journey through life, and I can’t imagine any person has the same one. God is like a snowflake, different for everyone. Believing in good people and the power of love is what some people believe God IS, you just might not call it God. Every time someone says God, I rewrite the sentence in my head and replace that word with my definition of “God,” which is similar to yours. It helps in the acceptance process, the understanding process and ultimately leads to the greatest amount of possible respect toward the person who said it.
As a last thought, I’ll say that when you hear his whole story, realize who he was and then look at who he is, I promise you that you’d become grateful for “the path.” However he got from where he was to where he is, you’d be grateful for it.
Peace
I think the meaning of life is what you make of it. You’ve found your path, which has diverged from self to others and each person has to find that comfortable place. I loved the video…it does make me think and question why we are a culture that sits in isolation on trains and yet we all want to communicate. We have lost so much of our ability to speak to one another due to our fixation with a computer screen. Beautiful post!