What Color Is Your Parachute? (56 page)

It is one of the conditions of our earthly amnesia and our creatureliness that, sadly enough, some very
human
and very
rebellious
part of us
likes
the idea of living in a world where we can be our own god—and therefore loves the purely Physical interpretation of life, and finds it
anguish
to relinquish it. Traditional Christian vocabulary calls this
“sin”
and has a lot to say about the difficulty it poses for this first part of our Mission. All who live a thoughtful life know that it is true: our greatest enemy in carrying out this first Mission of ours is indeed
our own
heart and our own rebellion.

As I said earlier, many of us come to this issue of our Mission in life, because we want to feel that we are unique. And what we mean by that, is that we hope to discover some “specialness” intrinsic to us, which is our birthright, and which no one can take from us. What we, however, discover from a thorough exploration of this topic, is that we are indeed special—but only because God thinks us so. Our specialness and uniqueness reside in Him, and His love, rather than in anything intrinsic to our own
being
. The proper appreciation of this distinction causes our feet to carry us in the end not to the City called Pride, but to the Temple called Gratitude.

You may have
already
wrestled with this first part of your Mission here on Earth. You may not have called it that. You may have called it simply “learning to believe in God.” But if you ask what your Mission is in life, this one was and is the precondition of all else that you came here to do. Absent this Mission, it is folly to talk about the rest. So, if you have been seeking faith, or seeking to strengthen your faith, you have—willy-nilly—already been about
the doing of the Mission you were given
. Born into
This Time in Between,
you have found His hand again, and reclasped it. You are therefore ready to go on with His Spirit to tackle together what you came here to do—the other parts of your Mission.

Your second Mission here on Earth is also one that you share with the rest of the human race, but it is no less your individual Mission for the fact that it is shared: and that is,
to do what you can moment by moment, day by day, step by step, to make this world a better place
—
following the leading and guidance of God’s Spirit within you and around you.

Imagine yourself out walking in your neighborhood one night, and suddenly you find yourself surrounded by such a dense fog, that you have lost your bearings and cannot find your way. Suddenly, a friend appears out of the fog, and asks you to put your hand in theirs, and they will lead you home. And you, not being able to tell where you are going, trustingly follow them, even though you can only see one step at a time. Eventually you arrive safely home, filled with gratitude. But as you reflect upon the experience the next day, you realize how unsettling it was to have to keep walking when you could see only one step at a time, even though you had guidance you knew you could trust.

Now I have asked you to imagine all of this, because this is the essence of the second Mission to which
you
are called—and
I
am called—in this life. It is all very different than we had imagined. When the question, “
What is your Mission in life?
” is first broached, and we have put our hand in God’s, as it were, we imagine that we will be taken up to
some mountaintop
, from which we can see far into the distance. And that we will hear a voice in our ear, saying, “Look, look, see that distant city? That is the goal of your Mission; that is where everything is leading, every step of your way.”

But instead of the mountaintop, we find ourself in
the valley
—wandering often in a fog. And the voice in our ear says something quite different from what we thought we would hear. It says,
“Your Mission is to take one step at a time, even when you don’t yet see where it all is leading, or what the Grand Plan is, or what your overall Mission in life is. Trust Me; I will lead you.”

As I said, in every situation in which you find yourself, you have been sent here to do whatever you can—moment by moment—to bring more gratitude, more kindness, more forgiveness, more honesty, and more love into this world.

There are dozens of such moments every day. Moments when you stand—as it were—at a spiritual crossroads, with two ways lying before you. Such moments are typically called
“moments of decision.”
It does not matter what the frame or content of each particular decision is. It all devolves, in the end, into just two roads before you,
every time
.
The one
will lead to
less
gratitude,
less
kindness,
less
forgiveness,
less
honesty, or
less
love in the world.
The other
will lead to
more
gratitude,
more
kindness,
more
forgiveness,
more
honesty, or
more
love in the world. Your Mission, each moment, is to seek to choose the latter spiritual road, rather than the former,
every time
.

I will give a few examples, so that the nature of this part of your Mission may be unmistakably clear.

You are out on the freeway, in your car. Someone has gotten into the wrong lane, to the right of
your
lane, and needs to move over into the lane you are in. You
see
their need to cut in, ahead of you.
Decision time.
In your mind’s eye you see two spiritual roads lying before you: the one leading to less kindness in the world (you speed up, to shut this driver out, and don’t let them move over), the other leading to more kindness in the world (you let the driver cut in).
Since you know this is part of your Mission, part of the reason why you came to Earth, your calling is clear. You know which road to take, which decision to make.

You are hard at work at your desk, when suddenly an interruption comes. The phone rings, or someone is at the door. They need something from you, a question of some of your time and attention.
Decision time.
In your mind’s eye you see two spiritual roads lying before you: the one leading to less love in the world (you tell them you’re just too busy to be bothered), the other leading to more love in the world (you put aside your work, decide that God may have sent this person to you, and say, “Yes, what can I do to help you?”).
Since you know this is part of your Mission, part of the reason why you came to Earth, your calling is clear. You know which road to take, which decision to make.

Your mate does something that hurts your feelings.
Decision time.
In your mind’s eye you see two spiritual roads lying before you: the one leading to less forgiveness in the world (you institute an icy silence between the two of you, and think of how you can punish them or otherwise get even), the other leading to more forgiveness in the world (you go over and take them in your arms, speak the truth about your hurt feelings, and assure them of your love).
Since you know this is part of your Mission, part of the reason why you came to Earth, your calling is clear. You know which road to take, which decision to make.