Defining My Why

Defining My Why

When I speak with someone and we are working through a scripture together or some other concept, I am well known for reminding people that the most engaging, as well as prophetic question you can ask of what you are reading or doing is “why?” I am being serious. No other question can define the text or the discussion more directly. If you do not know the why of the situation, the who what when and where loose context. When you lose context you open up multiple interpretations. This is not always bad. However, most of the times you need to understand the why in order to best operate in the present moment, or to engage in what you are reading or learning.

I have been reading Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why and he has some very insightful looks into organizations that start out by defining their why. Why do they exist? Why do they prosper? Why do they have so many early adopters who push the business further? I find this a fascinating concept and one that I think needs elaborated on further in another post. I want to take it into a personal place for a moment. As I was reading this morning I heard God ask “Have you defined your why?” I was startled for a moment at hearing it so clearly, and honestly I can say I have not. Not recently anyway. I had a personal mission statement for a time and I still take it out once in a while and ask myself tough questions, but it does not really get to the heart of who I am and why I am who I am. Here is a few things about me that I think most people who know me know, but some of it will be a surprise. This is me working to define my why and refine the thoughts a little bit further.

1)      I exist in this time and space in order to champion the cause of those who are left on the margins and who are cast aside by economic and religious injustice. I especially resonate with those who are outcast and set aside not by themselves, but by systemic and unrelenting pressure from religious and governmental pressures. Those who are told conform, reform and be reborn. This is where I am passionate, this is where I live.

2)      Every book I read or scripture I exposit has this question in mind “Who is this marginalizing?” Most people hate this question because it can bring about uncomfortable feelings and conversations with one self. The entire Bible testifies to the goodness of God. Everything God has done, especially the sending of His son, was to upend the systemic you are in/you are out mentality and the spiritual poverty it brings. I John 4:12 “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (NIV) We are ambassadors of love. Where love is, so exists Christ.

3)      I exist in the here and now to sometimes (maybe oftentimes even) be the burr in the saddle of the establishment. We as a religion, as a society, are diseased and are ensconced in the duality of life. Rich/poor, Good/bad etcetera. This is killing our society and I say enough. The Apostle Paul reminds the church at Ephesus in Ephesians to “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Again and again the Bible makes peace the priority. I struggle in keeping bonds of peace when all I want to do is go to war on behalf of the marginalized. I may not be able to go to war, but I do have a voice and I will use it passionately and persuasively on behalf of those who have been nullified by the current system.

Some of you know my current vocation. This has nothing to do with who I work for, and everything to do with it. What we do is awesome, but it is very limited on scope and direction. I aim higher and bigger. I want to see God’s love plastered everywhere. I believe my soul will not be at rest until I know it is done.

Some push around the label liberal when they think of me. That is fine, but it is just a label. Labels create duality, and it is the duality mindset that is oppressing so many millions, if not billions of people. What will it take for us to speak in a unified manner?

Organized religion will never answer fully for nor completely be able to beat the duality mindset. As long as there are organizations to maintain and a disembodied other out there that the organization must rally against in order to create unity, the point is being missed entirely. The answer is that each one of us makes the determination for ourselves, and we all set about radically and openly engaging with the idea that none is better than the other, money is not the object, religion only really divides – and that ALL people, ALL nations can and should pursue the love of the creator in any way they know how. We should get out of the way of our neighbors, and instead watch, love and learn.

I have a whole lot of work to do – a lifetime of work to do on this. I will fail, but there is grace in the journey. Will you go on the journey as well? Will you deem love worth working for? Will you begin to ask yourself the why in everything you do or say? It will take time, it will take honesty, and it will take courage that is rarely seen. But it is time.

I exist to raise the vibration of the cosmos with love. Love of God, love for myself, and love for all. Nothing else will do.

~Selah