The Secret to Living Life On Purpose

The other day I told my 7-year daughter to ask me anything about any subject, and promised to answer her truthfully.

Without skipping a beat, she said, “Who made God?”

B-Bang! She had that one right in the chamber. I was thinking something more like “why her big sister has a different Mommy”, or even, “where do babies come from?”

But she’s at the age where some things don’t quite add up. Even the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny have fallen under suspicion. She’s obviously been thinking about this and hasn’t heard an answer that makes sense to her.

It’s a fair question.

We’ve all taken a shot at it - awake at night trapped in a never-ending loop, ‘if God created the universe, then who created God?

Retire From The Debating Society

When it comes to divine intelligence we are in good company, the greatest thinkers throughout history have wrestled with our origin story. It’s the single greatest cause of war and in history. Billions of people have died defending or asserting their understanding of God.

If we want to argue over God, there’s no shortage of ammunition. Picking holes in historical contradictions and pointing out the hypocrisies of religion is easy – and a complete waste of time.  

What difference does it make if we crawled from primordial ooze, the Garden of Eden or a Raven’s egg? It’s the quality of our actions today that count. We all have to choose our own path. If we’re lucky we find one that works for us, and move on. But some get stuck and spend months, years, decades defending, arguing and condemning.

This is where faith comes in – either in God, science, or something in between. Until we decide where we want to put our faith, we are lost in the muck of uncertainty and endless debate.

Among other things, faith is great for winning arguments. My wife is a devout Christian. She grew up in the Church and it’s all she’s ever known.

She also has a science degree. I found this to be an unacceptable contradiction. I demanded she explain how she reconciles the two. She told me she doesn’t. She believes in God, and science, and doesn’t bother with the contradictions.

I began to explain to her a strategy for mounting a proper argument. She stopped me mid-sentence, and said, “Who said we were arguing.”

That shut me up.

I learned a lot from her simple, elegant approach to religion and science. This happy acceptance is a quality that I have struggled with. It comes from the confidence of knowing who you are and what you believe – and not fighting it.

This is the advantage to true conviction of belief.

Living Life On Purpose 

Once we free up our minds from the debating society treadmill, we can put this energy to good purpose.  We can focus on taking actions that make our lives better today. There will always be high-minded ideas that we can indulge in. But let’s not indulge in them at the expense of today’s happiness or the happiness of those around us.

There is no shortage of things we can do today that can make a difference. Boring things like:

1.     Recycling and caring for the planet,

2.     Reading to our kids,

3.     Spending time with our spouses,

4.     Helping others and being kind,

5.     Developing and sharing our creativity.

These are small things we can do to make the world a better place – giving back, communicating and creating beauty. They are also the things that get lost in the shuffle when we indulge in endless, internal, debates about unknowable subjects. If we have energy to spare, why not put this to good purpose?

In the end, I took the easy way out with my daughter’s question about God. I told her it was not something 7-year olds need to worry about, and one day she was going to have to figure it out for herself - but not today.

Then I read her a book about princesses.

·      How are you making the world a better place?

·      What could you do more of?

·      What’s stopping you?

Please leave answers, or comments below.

Best, Sam Edge

P.S. I’m just getting ready to launch a website on career and employment services “The Edge on Resumes”.  This site will focus on providing free advise for your professional life and review helpful websites and services. Check it out.

As always you can visit The Edge on Strategy for more about me and how to hire me for your writing projects.

The Edge of Compassion: A Manifesto

Humans are inherently connected to this system called Planet Earth. Every race and religion can trace their roots back to tribal cultures and economies based on the principles of interdependence and connectivity to their environment.  

Over the last two millennia, science and religion have disrupted this connection creating conflict and apathy that now threatens to collapse our Planet. More damage has been done to the in the last fifty years than the previous two thousand years combined. This is the ‘Echo’ we have inherited from the ‘Baby Boomers’ - the hollow echo of plastic, pavement and barren forests.

There is Hope!

A Global movement towards to ‘New Age’ beliefs that reflects our ancestral, tribal values of connection to the environment is growing up around us. This Global movement initiated independently in every corner of the world. It thrives on compassion and integrity. From the Maori and Aborigine to Tibetan Monks and Zen Masters. From the Cree and Inuit to the Celtic story tellers and Viking Gods. They’re all interconnected by the heartbeat of our planet and the law of pure potentiality.

These independent silos of connectivity to the environment are converging. They’re gathering mass and momentum in the Global Village emerging from the information revolution lead by the democracy of the World Wide Web. The culture of reconnection is becoming, and will once again be, the dominant belief worldwide. Ultimately this movement will be the force that saves us from consuming ourselves.

The time is now - the answer is yes.

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There is no easy way out of this complex situation - this impasse between those who are destroying our communities and those of us who continue to thrive and raise families in those same dying communities. There is no easy way - but there is a way.

This is the good news.

Living to our potential requires hard work and perseverance. There are drops of blood on the foundation of all great things. Blood stains the streets of our community. We are peaceful and powerful - sustained by walking upright with integrity. Protected from tyranny by action and good purpose we soldier on.

We bleed together. We bleed from circumstances beyond our control. We bleed for doing the next right thing regardless of its popularity and oblivious to the consequences. We bleed for those who have no blood to give. We are physically and emotionally weakened but spiritually we grow peaceful and more powerful. We have tasted the absence of suffering. We are grateful.

We have found a power so great, so overwhelming it overshadows suffering. This power begins with the pure potential of the individual and ends with the manifestation of our life’s purpose. This power cannot be procured or inherited. It must be earned through experience. It rejects the use of sacrificial lambs and throwaway people for individual pride and prestige.  It rejects those unable to find compassion. It demands accountability.

Our power is rooted in faith. Faith in our ability to overcome the tyrannical and oppressive minority that governs. Faith that fear, jealousy, and greed will never rise above love, honesty and compassion. Faith that the honest and hard working will always triumph over the weak and dishonest - those who claim power positions under the cloak of entitlement and secrecy and not by their virtue or ability. They who are neither virtuous nor able.

They are unremarkable and live in fear of the discovery. They do not possess the qualities of true greatness. They are a cancer that attacks the tissue of compassion. We are vigilant against their clever attacks. Our integrity is intact. Our struggle is long, our losses are great and our resolution is firm.  We pray for the safety of our oppressors. But we don’t waste our precious energy on those unable to listen. Those lost souls who have forgotten compassion.

We stand proudly against the tyranny of the weak.

Those of us who have bled for our beliefs see the Great Change coming. It is inevitable. We are empowered. We are no longer blinded by trickery or intimidated by those who see kindness as weakness, as we were when we were encumbered by the gift of innocence. We sacrificed our innocence for the greater good and in its place we gained wisdom and confidence.

We protect the innocent and bully the bullies.

Our silent movement has grown in living rooms, coffee shops, war rooms and chat rooms. Self-knowledge, ability and virtue sustain us. Connected by the ancient cardinal truths: love, compassion, honesty and integrity, we are powerful beyond the greatest fear of our oppressors. We stand with conviction against tyrants and bullies even when we are weak and bleeding. Our power is rooted in love and compassion and cannot be matched by fear and maliciousness no matter how underhanded and vicious their tactics are.

We do not waste our strength toppling corrupt corporate structures and outdated patriarchs that smother free will and creativity. They will topple themselves. We are unshakeable in our belief. We lead by example. We watch as they crumble under the weight of their own hypocrisy.

We show compassion that we have never been shown ourselves. This is integrity - the road to true greatness. We pray for, and give shelter to. peaceful warriors who have sacrificed for the greater good. We use our strength wisely - supporting the rehabilitation of our youth recovering from centuries of oppression and abuse.  As a collective, we do not punish abusers. We watch as they punish themselves.

We are the evolutionary bridge between the antiquated failing economy of combustion and self-interest to the new sustainable economy of compassion and connectivity. We make decisions based on manifesting perpetual abundance for all people. We do not expend energy when we can avoid it - but we do not hesitate to act for the greater good.

Fear cannot survive in us - it is a cancer that diverts us from our purpose. We transcend the lower frequency emotions driven by fear - revenge, resentment and self-pity. We show love and compassion for those who are stuck in the past. We live on purpose, at high frequencies where fear withers and dies of starvation. Love always conquers fear.

The end of the morbid addiction to fossils fuels is near. The antiquated and benign systems created in the last millennium serve as life-support – sustaining bloated CEOs and corrupt warlords. Powered by fear, greed and cowardice, these systems are resuscitated past their natural life span. Their time is over but they have not yet lied down to die. They do not accept the end of their hollow, empty existence. We will watch them implode from the pressure of their own dishonesty and callousness. We will be there to pick up the pieces after The Fall.

The time is now.

It is time for the just and hard working - the righteous and compassionate who support innocence - to stand tall. Good people can no longer bury their heads in the sand and hope for miracles. We are the miracle – the miracle of hard work, common sense and appropriate action. We are committed to leaving more than a legacy of famine and overconsumption to our children and grandchildren. We acknowledge they deserve more than an empty fridge and a bankrupt planet. We are making the world a better place.

You are the answer and the time is now.

Best Sam Edge

http://www.edgeonstrategy.com