Notes from the Wayside: Introspection: Rethinking Destiny

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Rethinking Destiny

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NRSV)

If you want, then start to laugh

If you must, then start to cry

Be yourself; don't hide

Just believe in destiny

Don't care what people say

Just follow your own way

Don't give up, and use the chance

To return to innocence

From "Return to Innocence" by Enigma

This year, I've made it a point to read more fiction. A few months ago, I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. In this novel, a young shepherd named Santiago has a recurring dream in which he is told that there is a treasure buried near the pyramids of Egypt. One day, Santiago stops in a city on his way to sell his sheep's wool, and he meets Melchizedek, the immortal king of Salem, who tells him that finding the treasure mentioned in his dream is his "Personal Legend." According to the king, your Personal Legend is "what you have always wanted to accomplish."¹ "God has prepared a path for everyone to follow," the king tells Santiago. "You just have to read the omens that he left for you."²

What Coelho calls Personal Legend others might call destiny. When I use the word destiny, I do not use it in a deterministic sense. In other words, I am not referring to what will inevitably happen in a person's life. As a good Methodist, I've never been a big fan of determinism or predestination. Destiny, as I have come to understand it, is what a person was born to do - that is, if the person has the determination and the courage to do it.

In years past, I stopped believing in such things because I was afraid that God wanted for me something I did not want for myself. One way I went wrong back then was that I was listening to other people too much and listening within too little. Though it is true that other people can help us to see things we might not see in ourselves, people sometimes have hidden agendas. People might want us to fill roles in their lives that were never ours to fill in the first place. I've learned the hard way that, if we do not have a purpose in life, we will be given one.

Reading The Alchemist has caused me to reconsider the possibility that each of us has destiny, that each of us was born to fulfill a unique purpose in life.

Speaking to a crowd, Jesus once invited all who "are weary and are carrying heavy burdens" to come to Him and to trade their heavy burdens for the yoke He offers, promising, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." In a recent paraphrase of the Bible, The Voice, He says, regarding this yoke, "It might appear heavy at first, but it is perfectly fitted to your curves."³ In other words, the yoke He invites a person to take on is perfectly tailored for the person. Maybe Jesus is inviting us to lay down the burdens we were never meant to carry and to embrace the purposes that were actually meant for us.

Once, for a sermon illustration, Shane Hipps used a guitar to hit wiffle balls to the people in his congregation, effectively demonstrating that a guitar can serve as an adequate wiffle ball bat. He then gave the guitar to someone who started playing a song with it, making it obvious that the guitar was meant not for playing wiffle ball but for making music. Similarly, though there are many things a person could do, maybe there is something specific a person is meant to do.⁴

It seems to me that, if God did create me for a specific purpose, then I must have been designed with that purpose in mind. My purpose must be written into my programming in some way. If this is the case, then my purpose in life is not something other people can tell me. It is instead something I must look inward to discover. I imagine that, if I was indeed created for a purpose, then living out my purpose would seem right to me and make me feel alive.

Melchizedek tells Santiago that "everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is." The king goes on to say that most people eventually convince themselves that their Personal Legends are impossible and then choose paths in life that are more practical. He then points out a baker in the city who, like Santiago, wanted to travel when he was young but played it safe and bought a bakery instead.⁵

I tried to remember what I wanted to do with my life before I decided in college that it would be a good idea to become a computer programmer. When I was a child I kept changing my mind about what I wanted to do when I grew up. I probably came up with a new idea whenever someone with a particular profession came to speak at my school or whenever a particular occupation was featured on a show on PBS. Had I followed my heart in college, I probably would have majored in either religion or philosophy, neither of which are especially practical fields of study.

A few things stand out in my memory. I remember that, when I was a little boy, my grandfather built a tiny podium for me. Apparently I envisioned myself as someone who spoke in front of large crowds - a teacher, a preacher, or maybe a game show host. I also remember playing school a lot. Incidentally, when I realized that computer programming is not all it's cracked up to be, I started teaching Sunday School and preaching occasionally at my church. I think that such things draw me because I love sharing knowledge with people and inviting people to look at things in new ways. I later learned that my spiritual gifts are knowledge and teaching.

A song by Switchfoot suggests that "the shadow proves the sunshine." In other words, sometimes a noticeable absence of something is evidence of its existence.⁶ I'm still wrestling with the idea that there is one particular thing I'm meant to do with my life, but I've reached the conclusion that there are things I was not put on this planet to do. Perhaps the latter is evidence of the former. Furthermore, the restlessness I sometimes feel would seem to suggest that, if there is something I'm meant to do, I'm not doing it. The fact I still feel it at times also suggests that, if I have a destiny, I haven't lost it yet.

I enjoyed reading The Alchemist, and I would recommend it to anyone wrestling with his or her purpose in life or to anyone who simply enjoys a good story. It challenged me to reconsider the possibility that there is something I was born to do; it reminded me that the journey is at least as important as the destination; and it warned me that pursuing my destiny, if I indeed have one, will mean turning my back on what is safe, comfortable, and predictable.

Notes:

Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist (25th Anniversary Edition). 2014, Harper One. p. 23
Coelho, pp. 31-32
Matthew 11:29 (The Voice)
Shane Hipps. "Wiffle Guitar." Mars Hill Bible Church, 06/27/2010.
Coelho, pp. 23-25
C.S. Lewis makes such an argument at the beginning of Mere Christianity.