Being a big-brained human is the grandest and the hardest assignment you’ll ever have. No matter if you’ve just arrived, or still growing up, or all grown up … life on planet earth can be enticingly exciting and frustratingly hopeless, all at the same time.
It’s true that God has designed our world and us each individually to have meaning and purpose, and that He has a path and a plan laid out for each one. But we don’t get downloaded all ready to go … it’s a long, slow, methodical process of seeking, discovering and execution: seeking our own path, discovering our own abilities and gifts, and then putting it all to work in our lives.
While we’re going through this process, we become aware of the bigger world beyond us, and the fact that there are billions of other big-brained humans out there, all going through the same process, all at the same time. And it’s chaotic out there!
And being the noble, big-brained creatures that we are, we conclude that there’s a place for us in that chaos, and maybe our purpose is to bring a bit of order to that. Now granted, just us alone won’t have much of an impact on the total picture … like trying to raise the ocean level by tossing in a glass of water. But there are billions of us! And billions of glasses of water will do the trick! Right. Seems obvious, but …
Life on planet earth is like watching a horror movie in the darkest hours of a sleepless night. In an empty house. All alone.
Not a monster or mad scientist movie. Not even a blood and gore slasher movie. A psychological thriller that gets inside your head and sets your imagination on fire. The kind that never actually shows the face of the enemy, but only the terror, death and destruction in the enemy’s wake.
How do you fight an enemy you can’t see? How can you protect yourself from an enemy you can’t see approaching? Is he behind you? Is he waiting around the next corner? Should you stay where you are? Should you move on?
You won’t be sleeping tonight.
You’ll be exhausted tomorrow.
Welcome to life on planet earth!