I feel like I'm at a significant tipping point in my life that everyone experiences at some point, often in their mid to late twenties. When you're young,everybody wants to change the world. Everybody has big dreams. Kids will naturally believe their life is for something important, from curing cancer to exploring Mars to being batman for real. As we get older these dreams are often refined slightly, but the adrenaline, naivety and feeling of invincibility that youth possess keeps them in the zone of passionate dreaming.
And then you graduate high school, maybe get a degree, find a job... and suddenly you stumble onto this vulnerable tipping zone between changing the world and settling down. [Disclaimer] By settling down I don't mean getting married, buying a house and having kids.
No, I mean a settling down of the soul.
When it's too much effort to get fired up about something enough to ask questions and do research. When you thought about being a part of something but it was easier to stay home and watch Netflix. When the things you used to want are now often dismissed as unrealistic or idealistic.
Friend, I beg you, don't waste your life! We are made to invest, create, fight for something, feel deeply about injustice... There is something that you, with your unique combination of personality, skills, resources and perspectives are able to offer to the world. Nobody else can sub in for you on that one. God doesn't make back up humans in case the first ones would rather take it easy!
I understand the hesitation people have, feeling like they don't really know what they are passionate about, or feel like it's too big of a dream to know how to start... so here are some small steps that can help ignite something in you that will start burning.
- Write a list of the things that you see in the world that make you feel uneasy, sad, frustrated or want to throw and break things. For me, a few of those were Fair trade injustices, human trafficking, the foster care system, urban poverty, christian apathy, youth suicide and non sustainable use of resources.... this is just a tiny example though, there are so so many things worth going after out there!
- Research and get educated about one of the things you wrote down. For some that might look like watching a documentary and reading stuff online, for others it might mean basing a whole degree around that.
- Spend time with people who are passionate... it doesn't have to neccesarily be about the same thing you have in mind, but I've found that being around people who have vision, drive and action causes those same things to rise up in me
- And finally, do SOMETHING. Anything that is even vaguely related to something you're passionate about.You can reshape and refine the direction of it later, but you can't steer something until it's moving. For me, my dream is to help tear down and recontruct the complex global systems that allow poverty and injustice to persist. Now I can't wake up one morning and get cracking on that without being paralyzed by how overwhelmingly huge that mission is. So I'm starting somewhere. I'm moving into the "ghetto" of the inner city in Vancouver for a year to listen to the stories of those who have been oppressed and marginalized and to better understand the layers and systems that contribute to generational western poverty. You don't have to move across the world, you can join a local action group, start conversations to raise awareness, sponsor a child, talk to people affected by a certain issue, volunteer, learn.... the opportunities are endless!
"There are those who will say yes, and there are those who prefer to say no. Those who say yes, are rewarded by the adventures they have and those who say no are rewarded with the safety they attain" - Keith Johnson
No comments:
Post a Comment