Last night I watched President Obama speak to the Tucson community and the nation as the victims of the shooting from the weekend were memorialized. While the entire speech was good and appropriate as he spoke about the need to come together as a nation instead of being divided and instead of pointing fingers as to who is to blame for such a horrific event, I couldn't help but focus primarily on the life of the youngest victim of the very tragic event. Little Christina Taylor Green's beginning and end of her life was filled with irony and with purpose. Born on September 11, 2001, a day when the country experienced unprecedented and horrific terrorists attacks, then nine years later being killed by a terrorist within her own community, suggests so much irony that it must be purposeful. Don't get me wrong, my heart goes out to the family of this little girl and I pray for their comfort and healing. But, her life was not without purpose and meaning in a way that many may never consider. This is not an entry intended to be political, patriotic or unpatriotic. No, because my blog is about life lessons, I want to focus on the lesson of her life. I want to focus on simply that the irony of her birth and death is so profound that it must have been her purpose. This young child's life, which before last week only those within her close knit community knew about, is a life that now has national and probably international reach. Her life and its message speaks loudly and is far reaching and is one that cannot be ignored through no effort, no fault, or no intention on her part. It's just the way it is.
There are many lessons that her Christina's life teaches, but I'll focus on just one for this blog in the context of destiny, purpose and fulfillment.Where there is irony in our life there may be purpose. Christina's birthdate and date of transitioning from this world were completely outside of her control. Yet, those very significant dates is what makes her life so very special and purposeful. So, as I think about those things in my life that I think are ironic yet carry much less of a sting…that I have spent most of my life living alone even though it is surely not my choice, that most of my female friends with whom I grew up and went to school are single and/or have no children. Or, that I attended some of the best colleges in America yet have not held a full time, permanent position in many years. Perhaps the very reality of my life may, in fact, be where my purpose lies.
So what does this have to do with me getting to my destiny? Perhaps this lesson has to do with my perception of my journey and the purpose for which I am on the journey. There are so many things about my life that I have no control over including not being married, not having kids, and to some extent the state of the economy such that my job prospects are slim in spite of having a quality education. But those circumstances are the very thing that perhaps make my life so purposeful. Christina's life and its innocence and vulnerability raises awareness that we critically need to make the world safer for our children and that we need to come together in unity to make that happen. I'm not sure how that message could have been more powerfully communicated given that she, in her innocence, was born amongst violence and she, in her vulnerability, died at the hands of violence.
I don't think that we choose our purpose, I believe it chooses us or rather God chooses us to fulfill some purpose. If we follow our heart then every day we will walk in that purpose as we head towards some ultimate destiny. We spend so much time asking God and wondering what our purpose is when perhaps it isn't so much for us to see or know as much as it is for others to see it in us. Our purpose is God's message to the world that is communicated through our life just as Christina's did. The context of our life situations will frame it as such so the message will be received by those for whom it is intended. Our job, then, may be to simply do what's in our hearts. By doing so we may be etching the message that God intends to write with our life. Today I will simply follow my heart that is yielded to God and allow God to write a message with my life. God will write it better than I ever could. And, while God writes, I can just simply sit back and enjoy the ride. Join me!!
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