If you’ve read Relentless Grace you might recall a scene in which Becky and I posed in front of a similar sign more than thirty years ago. Circumstances have changed, and this occasion has a much happier outcome. (And if you haven’t read Relentless Grace, may I ask what you’re waiting for?)
Once in a while it’s important to re-visit the basics.
Several months after my injury a friend came to see me. We weren’t especially close, so her visit was a bit of a surprise.
We chatted awhile, and she told me she felt like she had something she was supposed to share with me. She asked if it would be okay to leave a gift, and handed me a copy of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning. I didn’t realize its significance at the time, but Frankl’s poignant study of survival amid the horrors of Nazi concentration camps became a cornerstone of my eventual recovery.
Frankl observed that prisoners seemed to survive at random. Strong men often died quickly. Weaker people endured terrible atrocities and abuses. Finally he understood that physical circumstance wasn’t the determining factor. Frankl realized that long-term survivors shared one common trait: HOPE.
He concluded that those who had a reason to live, for whom life held meaning, were much more likely to survive.
Frankl’s story helped me understand that the path to recovery must pass through hope.
Hope looks forward with confidence and expectation, based on faith. Faith looks back and sees that God always keeps His promises. So hope is a confident expectation based on faith.
And when I know the future is secure, resting on the firm foundation of faith, I’m free to seek, discover, and live out my true purpose. I’m free to live an authentically meaningful life.
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:12-13)
Paul says that for now we only see part of the picture, so we need faith and hope. We need to look back and affirm our future expectations. But the day will come when we’ll see everything clearly. On that day we’ll live fully in the presence of love.
I’m thinking about this because I’m pondering next steps for RICH’S RIDE. Our recent team tour was in most respects a great success and represents a big step toward advancing our mission. Within a week or so I hope we’ll be able to announce our next project. I’m excited.
But excitement’s not enough. Progress, success, achievement…they’re hollow if they’re just stuff to do. The bike riding and fund raising and speaking will all become dust soon enough.
It’s gotta mean something, and authentic meaning can never be found in what we accomplish. When the smoke clears, meaning resides in the lives we manage to touch along the way.
It’s gotta mean something, and we’ll only find meaning when what we do is rooted in love.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
It’s gotta be about love, or it’s all just noise.
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