Passion and Purpose

The theme for this summer’s service is passion. What is passion? Merriam-Webster defines passion as an “ intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction.” Now, keep that in mind as I move on here because I am going to talk about something else first and then show how passion is a key ingredient to my topic.

I want to talk today about finding a life purpose. This has been an important subject for me for a very long time and I’m sure that some of you think about it often as well. In fact, I suspect that almost all of you have thought about it at one time or another in your life. Psychologists tell us that meaning and purpose are key ingredients to happiness and who doesn’t want a little happiness in their lives?

Now, being the student type that I am, I did a little research on the topic and found a book entitled The Purpose Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren. This is a very popular book and its title seemed to go directly to my question. As many of you know, the book was written by an evangelical Christian pastor. Though I did find some interesting nuggets in the book, the overall theology behind the proposed answers did not work for me. In essence, Warren tells us that our purpose in life is to love and serve God. That is a useful answer for some but, as I said, it didn’t work for me.

I continued to do some research and eventually came up with what I thought were some interesting and innovative concepts to answer the question I put before me. I collected those ideas into my own book and, I have to admit, I got a little cocky and decided to name the book The Purpose Derived Life: Why In The Universe Am I Here? [show book] If you will allow me, I would like to share with you some of the thoughts I put into this book. Maybe it will work for you or maybe it won’t but you can at least get a different perspective.

In his book, Warren chose to look to God for answers. Since it was evident that his conception of God is vastly different from mine I decided to look in another direction. I chose to look to Nature for answers. Before I go into that, however, I need to clarify some definitions that arose as I was working on the book.

The question at hand is “how do you discover your life purpose” but I had to do some thinking about defining a life purpose. I decided that there were actually two types of life purpose. I chose to name them intrinsic and extrinsic. An intrinsic purpose is created by the qualities of a thing while an extrinsic purpose is given to a thing by another. Let’s take a tree as an example. The intrinsic purpose of a tree is to live and grow. That is what it does through the interaction of its constituent parts. From the moment a tree seed germinates in the ground all its components work to survive and grow into a tree. That growth is not just for itself but also for its species because it will produce additional seeds that will, hopefully, become future trees. If someone comes along and cuts down that tree to, say, make a log cabin, that tree has now been given another purpose, an extrinsic purpose. Its purpose will be to support the log cabin. That purpose was given to it by another being. Namely, an axe-wielding house building human. An extrinsic purpose was given to the log by another being.

In looking at the whole of nature to define a purpose I wanted to determine if it had an intrinsic purpose, that is to say, a purpose not given to it by another being–including ourselves. Can we determine such a purpose? If so, then what is it? That is where I decided to start my search.

The current theory about the start of the universe is the famous Big Bang theory. As you probably know, many scientists believe that the entire universe may have started out as a very minute ball of energy that, at some point, exploded and sent energy out across the expanse of space we now call our universe. And that process continues to this day. In fact, numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that the universe continues to expand. So, the universe–at least as we know it–began with a massive expansion of heat and energy. Though the force of gravity does produce stars and planets and moons, all of those things are mostly in the process of decaying. You see, if the universe is considered a closed system–meaning that there is nothing else to influence it–then, according to the laws of thermodynamics–it must be undergoing a process called entropy. In scientific terms entropy is defined as “a thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system.” In less words we might understand entropy as when a system seeks equilibrium by going from a high order of organization to a low order of organization. It’s like when you get on the subway. People tend to spread out in the car as far away from each other as possible. When the car is full you don’t see everyone sitting on top of each other at one end of the carriage. People spread out as best they can to claim their own space. It appears that atoms do the same. They prefer to spread out in a space rather than clump together except when magnetic or electric forces move them together. They would rather dart about freely in a state that might appear to us to be chaotic. A high degree of organization or order is low entropy and a high degree of disorganization or chaos is high entropy. Overall, the universe is moving from a low state of entropy toward a high state of entropy or from a highly organized ball of energy to a rapidly expanding state of apparent chaos. Entropy is the essence of the universe. Entropy, to me, is the intrinsic purpose of the universe.

Let’s take another example: your kitchen, for instance (or any place you might eat). If that place is an absolute mess; if there are dirty dishes everywhere and leftover food that’s starting to look like some kind of chemistry experiment or pots and pans strewn about, maybe the chairs are out of place and the table is messy and dirty, you might say that such a messy place is in a low state of order or a high state of entropy. It wouldn’t matter if you moved a plate or two because the kitchen would still be a mess. The state of entropy does not change. In fact, it won’t change at all unless you or someone you love to assign chores puts forth a great deal of energy and cleans it all up. On the other hand, if your kitchen is organized and spotless we might say that it is in a low state of entropy or chaos and a high state of order. If you took one single plate and left it out, it would be easily noticed.

Think about where you live as a whole. No matter how clean it is right now, if you left it alone, it would eventually become disordered on its own. Weeds grow, spiderwebs appear, dirt and dust accumulate, and things fall apart. It takes a constant application of energy to maintain order or to fight off the universal condition of entropy.

Let’s take one final example: an egg. An egg is perfectly ordered. It has a hard shell that holds a white substance inside which surrounds the yellow yolk. It is in low entropy and the universe does not want it to stay that way. If I crack that egg, the shell will break apart and the liquids inside will spill out and dissipate as far as they can. Here’s the other thing about entropy: it tends to move in one direction. No matter how hard I try I will not be able to get that egg back together the way it was. Even if I just left it alone it would eventually decay and crack open. That’s the way of entropy and what physicists call the arrow of time. It only moves in one direction.

In thinking about entropy as the intrinsic purpose of the universe I wondered if the scientific maxim was true. You know the one: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I wondered if there was an opposing force to entropy. There is gravity, of course. Gravity can cause elements to come together to form stars and planets and other bodies but even these things begin a process of decay the moment they are formed. I wondered if there was something else that could be called in to balance the force of entropy and the answer I came up with was life. Life is a force that seeks to maintain stasis. All life works to survive as individuals and as species. All life procreates and develops offspring that gather energy to grow - that is its intrinsic purpose. This, I believe, is the opposite of entropy. Some have called this force syntropy. And the force that makes this all possible, the gravitational field for this force (if you will), the uniting power that makes it possible to sustain one’s self, to band together with others for survival, and to make procreation possible… is love. Love is what makes us who we are. Love is the force that resists chaos. Love is what makes life possible. Love is our intrinsic purpose.

Now, for some beings it is enough just to live, to survive, to prosper, and to propagate. But, this is not so for humans (and maybe a few other beings). Humans do want to survive and propagate (especially at times like Spring Break) but, for most people, that is just not enough. Most people also want their lives to have meaning and purpose and to have those things guide them through the glories and pitfalls of life. Humans seek an extrinsic purpose.

I simply do not believe that a singular purpose has been scripted out for us and all that we need to do is find it, nor do I believe it is ordained through a higher power. I believe we need to seek it on our own. I also believe that we can have more than one purpose in life depending on the roles we play within our groups and communities but I am speaking of that one overarching purpose that leads us through life and instills within us a sense of fulfillment and joy. That is why I titled my book the Purpose Derived Life.

The way to find that purpose, I believe, is to first follow your intrinsic purpose. That is to say, you need to find ways to survive and thrive and the path to do that is through love. We excel best when we support each other, when we care for each other, when we respect each other, and when we help each other grow. It turns out that love is also the path to finding the big purpose as well.

When you pursue things that you love to do you develop a passion for those things. You see! I did get around to the theme, after all. Passion: your great life purpose is intimately connected to your passions. When you find a passion for something–anything positive–you should pursue that passion. If a purpose does not reveal itself through it immediately, it will. Sometimes the passion is the purpose and sometimes it leads to another revelation about purpose. I am convinced that each and every person in this world (and that means you) has unique talents and skills and if you don’t think you do then I believe it is because you may not have discovered them yet.

So, if you haven’t found your guiding purpose in life and want to look for it I recommend these steps. First, discover who you are. Second, discover your passions. Third, follow your passions.

To discover yourself, read about other people, learn about personalities, observe yourself and others, and be willing to constantly reflect on what you do. To discover your passions, try anything, everything, even things you think you won’t like. There are millions of things out there waiting for you to discover them.

How will you know when you’ve found a passion? You will feel it in your body. Passion doesn’t live in the head. If you find you lose yourself in the activity or entering what athletes call “the zone” you will know you have found something important. Your body knows when you are on the right path. Your breath is slow, your muscles are relaxed, and you feel a welcome tingling all over. Most of all your mind is free of self-judgment and is in a state of wonderment. Those are the signs of passion.

Once you have discovered those passions then follow them in any way you can and let them lead you down a road to even greater discovery. It is when we can release a sense of ourselves as independent beings and feel ourselves as part of a continuously changing force of life that we can enjoin ourselves to the intrinsic purpose of life. We are here to survive and to make meaning out of that survival. We are here to create, not just to further our species but to fill the world with wonder and beauty and, finally, we are here to find joy and to share that joy with others by connecting together to the living, loving, expansive force of the universe.

When we do this, the journey to purpose becomes more than an interesting individual pursuit, it becomes a personal spiritual quest the result of which enriches our own selves as well as the lives of those around us.