Destiny

If our journeys are mythic, as I proposed last week, then our lives loom larger than we realize. Implicit in our creation is the contribution that we are to make to all of life, if we will live our life fully and express our voice in the world. Just being a visitor in life is no longer enough; we must also fulfill our destiny.  God is counting on us!

Oh, No!! You say, not one more thing to do! But it is in disengaging from the busyness of today’s life, in reaching for wholeness, in peeling away the culture’s way of doing things to reveal our truer self, that life becomes incredibly simpler, truer and integrated. Living an authentic life means you are no longer torn in many different directions.

The late Joseph Campbell, who is best know for his studies in comparative mythology, called it following your bliss, but I think he has been misunderstood. Following your bliss is not an egotistical journey that allows one to do whatever he wants regardless of how it affects his family, other people or the earth. One experiences joy or bliss by expressing one’s own voice. Your voice, the destiny of your creation, is needed in the service of life itself. If we each do what we were designed to do, we fulfill ourselves and help fulfill God’s plan.

So speak, act, protect, tend to, write, dance, build, create, draw, preach, design, sing, sew, drive, knit—do whatever best expresses the essential you. If many of us followed the call of our creation, the world would surely begin to change, to take the long journey of a huge ship as it slowly changes course. The world is waiting for us now!

This is not the journey of a star, of fame, it is the very human journey of a man or woman who longs for fulfillment, peace and authenticity.

Why else do we need the experience of a hero(ine)’s journey? Why would we need to slay the hydra or meet other challenges? Are we just to gain the experience for ourselves? Or are we to share what we’ve learned with others? We need to somehow share this wisdom and knowledge on the world stage, to add to the other voices of wisdom, so that humanity’s volumes of wisdom “literature” grow and grow.

What you know for sure now is enough to start with. Speak out from the center of your being. Are you sitting on passions? Are you not using your voice effectively? What is calling you?

God is waiting for you to begin; God has a place for you on the mythic stage. God needs you to help bring in the kingdom—speak when you must speak, do what you must do—all motivated by an inner call shaped by the very genes that make you who you are.

If you would awakened to your calling, how many more might hear their own? Don’t just visit your life superficially, inhabit it fully and deeply. We each have a mythic purpose to fulfill.