questions of ultimate concern

Photo by Dmitri Ratushny. Creative Commons License.

In times like these, certain questions of ultimate concern naturally surface. We wonder: “What will become of us?” We become aware of our own vulnerability, our own fragility. The life we have been building and the rhythms to which we are accustomed change. We instinctively feel that when we come out on the other side of the ordeal, the world will be a very different place.

To be human is to be contingent. No person is an island. We are dependent beings. We depend upon the physical world: food, drink, light, clean air, an ecosystem so delicately balanced it is capable of knocking us speechless with awe. We have bodies and when one’s body comes under threat it is human instinct to guard against such threats.

But we are more than just organs, bone and skin. We crave relationship, we have emotion, and we have deep-seated needs of security and a sense of identity. We have creative impulses and we want our lives to be generative. One’s body may grow stronger or weaker, but these deeper emotional and spiritual impulses remain constant (and can even intensify in response to our life situation).

The mind can help us address these deeper needs but it can really only get us so far. Though the mind can help us think rationally in the midst of crisis, there may linger certain irrational fears and primal desires that lie deeper than our abilities to think our way through them.

Life is ultimately a way of the heart. Love makes sense but, in the end, the opening of the heart to love takes faith. One never knows if one’s openness will be betrayed by the one for whom we opened our heart in the first place. Trust is courageous and to have courage is to live by the way of the heart.

I believe that when we pay attention to these deeper questions (when we can get beyond just playing mind games) we come to a point where we come face to face with God, who is the ultimate ground of all being, who is there, ready to meet us in love, in whom we find

love,

security,

identity,

creativity,

purpose,

meaning,

acceptance,

peace,

grace,

and joy.

My calling in this life is to help people engage these ultimate concerns, to find a way out of mere existential angst (or avoidance), and to thrive in the deepest part of their being. If you would like someone to talk with about these things, I would count it an honor to be that friend to you. Just send me a message and we can talk. I promise I will not preach at you but will mainly try to be a good listener. The soul is a tender space. I will be gentle and, perhaps, playful. The soul is the spring of joy, after all.

Always remember: you are not alone and you are loved.