CHAPTER 1
The Elusive Purpose
Little children will play near snake holes. They will stick their hands into dens of poisonous snakes and never be hurt. Nothing harmful will take place on the Lord's holy mountain.
— Isaiah 11:8–9 (CEV)
One question has always consumed mankind: why do we exist? For what purpose were we created? More importantly, what is my purpose? We ask these questions because on some level we can still feel a connection from our divine origins, a quiet thought reminding us to seek our higher selves, to live in the essence of our divinity. This quiet thought stirs within us, pushing us to find the meaning of our existence. Yet for many of us, this defined purpose seems ever elusive, like the stars in the night sky — just beyond our reach. We retain the knowledge within the deepest part of our souls, the message that we're grander than these bodies we inhabit. Our purpose has become shrouded, our connection to the divine lost over time.
We don't come into the world with a sense of unworthiness; rather it's something we've picked up, learned, or been taught. The adults who surrounded us when we were growing up passed down their fears to us. It wasn't their intent to harm us but rather to protect us from what they perceived would hurt us. It's common that most people inherently fear those things they don't understand, so they seek to avoid them. By avoiding these things, we build up excuses and false beliefs designed to protect us from fear.
A newborn baby comes into this world without any sense of the word fear. It is beyond him or her; there is no existence of fear within the baby. Babies come into this existence filled only with love. Do you know why a toddler will walk over to a snake and try to play with it? He or she has no concept of fear; in the divine source of love they comes from, the basic notation of fear doesn't even exist.
Children are born only with the knowledge of love; fear is what we teach them. Children are like chalkboards. They come into this world with prefilled messages on the edges of their chalkboards. Messages of love written on them. These messages are the knowledge we bring with us into this existence. The understanding that our purpose is love.
Our chalkboards still have open space available for us to write on. This is where we write the words our experiences teach us. This is the place where we can write the messages we absorb as we grow.
The problem is that as we age, we begin to write on our chalkboards words that are untrue, fallacious definitions that have been forced on us. Occasionally we even give our chalk to someone else, allowing that person to write his or her words on our chalkboard. These words corrupt our slates.
By the time we reach adulthood, our chalkboards are full of mistruths. The false beliefs we've absorbed over the years are so ingrained on our slates that they cover and blur out the message we brought with us when we entered the world. The words we brought with us into this world have become lost to us over time. The connection to our source of love grows weaker as the truth becomes distorted.
An example of an average child's chalkboard:
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Child's Chalkboard
An example of an average adult chalkboard:
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Adult's Chalkboard
The ego's sole purpose is to survive. By fostering our fears, we've lost the connection to the infinite source of love we came from. The ego seeks to ensure its own survival at all costs. When and if we have the courage to seek out why have we lost this connection; the ego is prepared, ready, and eager to answer the question. In nurturing what we most fear, the ego will tell use we've somehow become not good enough, not worthy enough, to have access to divine love. This is the state in which the ego thrives. Remember, the ego seeks only to enforce whatever belief will sustain its existences.
By encouraging our beliefs with constant affirmations that we're not worthy to knock on the door of the house of love, the ego ensures its continual survival. You engage in the battle of love and fear every day. The difference is that some people are aware of this struggle, while others choose to remain ignorant of it. Don't be fooled by appearances of success, wealth, weight, beauty, confidence, or any allurement to the personal ego. These things cannot yield to you what you seek.
Fear consumes our every waking moment and even our dreams. We spend so much of our existence drowning in the endless wasteland known as fear. It permeates every aspect of our lives. Like a vampire, it feeds off our vibrations, our energy, and sometimes even our flesh. It knows no boundaries, and it has no conscience. It seeks only to perpetuate its own survival, even at the expense of your own. Fear lives with us and surrounds us. The impact of its vicious weaponry bombards us. Our wounds are deep and jagged, leaving prolonged scars. Fear knows our every weakness and has a vast army and artillery to attack us. It is ever changing like a chameleon. It can change its form of assault as quickly as we change thoughts.
From the newscast to the office gossip and to our internal dialogue, it encases us every minute of every day. Fear has thus far led the themes of our lives. It can be overwhelming and intense in its presence. It reproduces only more of itself: more fear. It's like a circular staircase that has no ending; forever it spirals downward, increasing its speed in its descent. It has the power to take us over, spreading like an airborne virus to every area of our lives. Fear displays its presence through our days. Perhaps for you it starts with the morning, when you plow through your wardrobe, looking for that one thing that will change everything you hear running through your head.
Unabated fear spreads throughout our world in vast amounts in only mere fractions of a second. Its primary message to you is that you're not safe, that you are, in fact, in jeopardy. This is the trigger that sets off a chain reaction. Your ego rushes forth with a plethora of reasons for you to avoid changing, to stay within the safety of the familiar, no matter the unconscious consequences. The ego will negate what is best for you to keep you stuck in the familiar where it feels safe. If you think there's no payoff from this type of negative beliefs or self-talk, then you're completely incorrect. You're receiving something in your avoidance of change, the safety of the familiar, even if the familiar is drowning out your spirit's light.
Some people fear change so much they become just a shadow of their true selves. Their egos have bombarded them with negative messages to the point that their souls are in essence drowning within a pool of false beliefs. Fears of success, worthiness, lovability, acceptance, and death — our own or someone we care for — is all designed to prevent you from knocking on the door of the divine realm, in which you're entitled to enter.
Dr. Wayne Dyer stated in his book Excuses Begone! "Fear knocked on the door. Love answered, and no one was there." The message is simple; love can conquer fear. Yet we live in a world where our fear tells us love only answers for those who are good enough. Your false self tells you that you're not worthy enough for the door of love to open, and the evidence is the fact that the door is still closed. The reality, however, is vastly different. You see, it's not that love hasn't answered the door for you but rather that you've failed to knock. You listen so intently to harsh, negative voices running through your mind that you've not noticed that you, in fact, have never knocked on the door. Therefore, the truth isn't that love has rejected you; rather it's waiting for you.
There's only one source pure enough to defeat the raging infestation of fear. It can heal all wounds. It holds no judgments. It is the answer to why we are here. It's the reason we exist. Its intention is always pure. It's a conscious choice you must make to let it in by surrendering your fears to one who can defeat them. It is the essence of life itself.
CHAPTER 2
Unveiling Our Purpose
Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.
— Rumi
The truth is we all have many purposes in this life, yet there is only one divine purpose, one sole reason for our existence in this place and time. Perhaps this statement is a surprise to you. The reality is that many of us miss the true nature of our purpose because we envision it to be grander than it sounds. When we are told what our purpose is, we have an innate critic that proclaims its denial of the truth by understating its value. Our internal critic reasons there must be more to the purpose of life than just that. What our internal critic seems to fail to understand is that our soul's purpose is far more complex than it sounds. In fact, the single, one-word definition doesn't even begin to express the vast level of depth and value of our purpose. Our purpose has the ability to transcend our momentary existence and impact this world in which we reside in a far more meaningful way than we can even conceive in this form of existence. What is the purpose that allows us to transcend this human existence? What is this one purpose we're here to experience and give?
Love. And not just any love. A divine love. One of our purposes in this existence is to be an expression of divine love. This love differs from the normal Western version that often comes to mind when we think of love. The main differences between human love and divine love are limits. Human love comes with conditions, manipulations, and ultimatums attached to consequences. Human love is measured and judged; we're found to be either worthy or unworthy of it. Whereas divine love is unselfish in nature, human love is conditional and can change for any number of reasons. Often the concept of divine love is confused with condoning actions of someone who is hurtful or negative in his or her impact. Yet these actions aren't conclusive. When you love someone but don't condone the actions he or she may have taken in this existence, you're giving divine love.
Your purpose is even more than the all-encompassing definition of divine love. Your precise purpose in this life is to understand and give back your specific divine expression of love. To fulfill this purpose, you must seek to understand your unique expressions of love.
The beliefs we hold dearest to our hearts are the ones that most define us. Negative beliefs you hold about yourself and others weigh down your heart. The positive beliefs you hold about yourself and others lift up your heart. As Jiddu Krishnamurti describes whatever you continually claim about yourself is, in fact, an indication of something you fear. 21Whatever you say the most to yourself becomes the loudest message, and that is often what we fear the most about ourselves. A common fear most people have is they are unworthy; more importantly, they are unworthy of love. Is it really that surprising that the purpose we seek is so elusive, when we feel unworthy of it?
Perhaps you want a raise at work, and when it fails to come, you confirm that you're unworthy of recognition and praise. If you're unworthy of recognition at work, then it must follow that you're unworthy of recognition at home. Therefore, being unworthy of recognition at home means you must be unworthy of acceptance.
Maybe you're the only single person in a sea of married friends. Therefore, you conclude that you must be unworthy of love. Instead of winning the jackpot, you lose one hundred dollars trying. Therefore, you must be unworthy of being wealthy. Do you see how this lie has grown like a fast-eating virus, leaving nothing but wounds of pain in its wake? You've become unworthy of recognition, praise, acceptance, and love, all in a matter of seconds.
Thus, the lie is perpetuated. It grows and adapts to suit the needs of your fears. We struggle against this pattern lie like a f ly trying to outsmart the silky strands of a spider web. Caught in the web, like a small f lying insect, we become only more entangled the harder we fight. We want to be set free; we want to escape this trap. But to do so, we must do the thing that doesn't come easily to us. We must let go. Yes, that's right — let go!
We must let go of our core belief that we're unworthy. When we first flew into the web, we weren't completely immobile; we still had room to move. Usually, we used this ability to struggle to escape, to break free of this web by our shear force. It was in this struggle that we became even more tangled within the strings of the web. When the spider arrived, we became so entangled in the silky strands that we couldn't even move, and thus it devoured us.
Yet, if on the initial impact we were to let go, we would accept the truth that we have fallen into a trap. This would allow us to clearly see what falsehood led us there, and thereby begin to surrender our struggle by letting go. In letting go, we give up the urge to fight. Instead we wait, watch, listen, and learn. We seek the source of the falsehood, the lie that has brought us to this web. Now, when the spider comes, we recognize it for what it is. We can clearly see the one that hunts us and call it by its true name. Now, when it matters, we have the room to break free.
The issue isn't that we don't want to change but that we don't recognize how we sabotage ourselves. We hope something will change and prove to us we're worthy. Yet we can never achieve what we don't acknowledge. You can hope to be worthy of wealth, love, and happiness; and yet you inadvertently seek to prove the opposite of that by seeking out all you can to support your belief that you're unworthy of wealth, happiness, or love. The type of unworthiness you feel, whether love, acceptance, goodness, and so on, doesn't matter. The source is the sense of unworthiness. Rather than seeking the truth that you're worthy, you continue to lie to yourself, thereby allowing yourself to feel unworthy and feel the pain that accompanies that belief.
Being honest with yourself means taking ownership of the mess you've created within yourself. The fact that we're responsible for the vast amount of fear we carry within us is a sobering thought. It requires us to look within ourselves for the strength to accept this truth by being completely, utterly, gut-wretchedly honest.
Love is everything, and without it there is nothing. It's through love that our connection to source is forged. It's through this connection that we're supported and sustained. Yet it's the one thing that has most often eluded us in some fashion at some point in our lives. We often fall short in giving love to others and most assuredly in loving ourselves. The very nature of love is typically the opposite of most everything we see, hear, and are exposed to in a single day.
To fully live your purpose with an awakened passion, you need to ensure you have a solid foothold in your connection to God, the divine existence. It is through this connection to your foundation that your soul soars to its highest peak, where the peace of love surrounds us all. It is in this place where we live in authentic harmony within the essence of divine love. As you seek to understand your unique expression of love, you will find one truth to be inescapable. Love is everything, and without love there is nothing.
