The Journey: Introduction

I have a long held desire for significance within me.

I think most of us are aware of something in us that makes us want to leave a permanent mark on the trajectory of society. Something that says - I was here! We see it scribbled on desks and bathroom doors, carved into trees, and spray painted on to walls the world over. There is even ancient graffiti in the form of hieroglyphics found in the great pyramids of Giza (www.drhawass.com/events/mystery-hidden-doors-inside-great-pyramid-0‎), made by the artisans who worked on the great tombs identifying who they were, letting us know that they were there; that they were part of something bigger than themselves.

There are many who say that leaving these marks is just a sign that people want a sense of them being permanent in a temporal world. We look to the Bible's book of Ecclesiastes 3:11 to see that God has set eternity in the hearts of men. I believe this to be true. I believe that there is something that rises up in me and fights against the notion of death, because I have eternity written into my heart, because I am designed to live forever. I believe that with all of my heart.

But it does not, in my opinion, explain my burning desire to make a mark on the world. I'm not speaking about having a building named after me, or some grand scale monstrosity of a monument to my name, because at the end of the day - 200 years from now - the only person who will remember my name and the things that I did, is God. And I don't know if that makes me feel very big or very small, but it does make me feel responsible. Responsible to do the best with my life that I can, so that on THAT day, I can stand and say that the world was improved because I lived in it.

And so I return to my quest for significance. Not significance, for signficance sake. That is pointless, and will only lead to burn out. For those who have not been through or witnessed burnout - it is not pretty. Not pretty at all. Ask anyone who knew me in 2006-2008. What my heart craves is to make a significant impact in the world in which I live, to leave the world a better place than how I found it. Even if that means having a significant impact in just one person's life.

This is my journey.

I invite you to join me on this journey if you wish. It is certain to be an interesting one.

Maybe I will succeed. Maybe I will fail hopelessly. But the very least I can do it try. I know that as I walk this out, I will have to face some of my greatest fears, and lies that I have believed for so long. I will be forced to confront who I am and who I am not.

This journey that will hopefully end in me saying that I am working toward something truly significant, needs to start with me knowing who exactly I am, because before I can say that "I  was here", I need to be able to say that I am here...

While I refer to this journey as being one toward  significance, it is in reality a journey of significance, because the journey is life... Each one of us is on our own journey, and I'm just looking for the significant purpose in mine that my heart won't let me rest until I find.  All we can do it walk out this journey to the best of our ability, to "suck the marrow out of life" and seize each and every day, and hope to make it count for something more than ourselves; because "a man wrapped up in himself, makes a very small parcel" - John Ruskin.