MENTAL HEALTH, PROACTIVITY, AND THE PURSUIT OF A HIGHER GOAL

Whenever my family physician sees me, she asks, “Have you been exercising?” Why? If we don’t use it, we will lose it. This pertains to, not only our muscles, but also our health. Moreover, our practice requires an adequate reason for our practice. This is a general rule – We need to live proactively by pursuing meaningful goals, those in which we believe.

I was just told about a young atheist musician with stage IV cancer, who has just lost control of his bodily functions. However, right up until this point, he had been composing songs with the help of some caring people. His life has been a testimony to our need to be pursuing our goals, even till the end. When our eyes are focused ahead at our goals, it is easier to ignore the grasping and damning threats, which encircle us like flies.

However, the goals of this young musician will die with him, even if others will continue to enjoy his music. This is the dismal refrain sounded by King Solomon who had been searching for the meaning of life:

·       I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:13-14)

Although Solomon had many pleasures and goals to occupy him, he hadn’t been convinced of their worth:

·       The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. Then I thought in my heart, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" I said in my heart, "This too is meaningless." For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die! (Ecclesiastes 2:14-16)

Did the young artist share Solomon’s lament, once the visitors departed? I wasn’t told. Despite Solomon’s great wisdom, he was unable to grasp what was most important – an eternal life follows this one, where all of our pain and confusion will be joyously addressed.

The Apostle Paul had written wisely that our goals and successes, if limited to this life, will not give us what we require:

·       For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied….What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”  (1 Corinthians 15:16-19, 32)

We long for goals that reach into eternity, the prize for which we have been created. Without this glorious expectation, our lives are crushed by the weights of life. The late atheist and mathematician and author of Why I am not a Christian, Bertrand Russell, had also been content with his own life. He was convinced that the hope of a heaven was both foolish and unnecessary. Instead, he was confident that he could chart his own life and navigate it to all the satisfying ports-of-call. However, some years later, the harsh realities of the narrow atheistic worldview caught up with him. Russell then conceded:

·       "I wrote with passion and force because I really thought I had a gospel [by creating his own meaning]. Now I am cynical about the gospel because it won’t stand the test of life." (Os Guinness, The Journey, 106)

We were made for an indelible purpose and a higher meaning to support it. Otherwise, our fate is what the late lawyer, Clarence Darrow, had famously described:

·       “The purpose of man is like the purpose of a pollywog—two wiggle along as far as he can without dying; or, to hang to life until death takes him.” https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/35745-the-purpose-of-man-is-like-the-purpose-of-a

All of this made me reconsider my own blessedness. I have been richly honored to serve my Creator and Lover, the Author of all truth and goodness. How this has dignified my life! As a result of this higher calling, I no longer need to compare myself with others, since God is my reference point. This has enabled me to rejoice with those who rejoice and to mourn with those who mourn.

Jesus also acknowledged that His goal and nourishment were to serve the Father (John 4:34). In this, He delighted (Isaiah 11:1-4).

I too delight in the fact that my life is nourished by God’s unfading meaning and purpose. Nothing can be more edifying, especially as we see our bodies decaying towards the grave, where worms will gnaw at them:

·       So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Our eyes must continue to look towards our Prize.