You Matter

Rick Warren, a pastor and best selling author of this hugely popular book “Purpose Driven Life” was at TED recently to give a talk about living a life of purpose. I admit, I heard a lot about the book, I know many people who’ve read the book and I know that it sold more than 30 million copies worldwide but, I have NOT read the book. Maybe because so many people have read and talked about it already that I find no mystery in it anymore. Oh well, maybe one day I could find the urge to read it.

Watching the guy speak is another matter though. He is not a great speaker so much as he is a great messenger. In his talk, he discussed about his own struggle with his newfound “notoriety” when the book became hugely popular. The money (lots and lots of it) and fame that came with it is something that he was never used to. It made him ask himself: “What is the purpose of all of this?” For me, listening to his message also made me reflect on my own life’s purpose. We, as human beings are not just random happenstance whose existence is no more meaningful than say, a duck. You are not a duck. You are a human being. You matter. You matter to God. You matter to society. You matter to your family.

And in understanding these things we come to know the real meaning of life. That life is not just about get, get, get. “Get all you can. Can all you get. Sit on the can and spoil the rest”. It is about giving our life away in a meaningful manner and leaving the world a better place than we found it. Listening through it sounds esoteric for a while but it is not a giant responsibility that we need to do, nor a spiritual endeavor that we must strictly adhere to. All it takes is for you to be you. The portion where Rick Warren describes his joy just watching his kid sleep, his kid's body rising lower, then higher, lower, then higher, as the kid breaths deeply into sleep. The Lord feels the same thing about us. He becomes happy to see Darwin be Darwin. Jane be Jane. You be You.

The thing about this talk is that it doesn’t deal with any religious issues but human issues. Issues we all care about. I personally believe that good life starts with being inspired. Whenever I listen to this talk, I feel inspired. I feel good. I would like to share it with you. See if it has the same effect:

Living a Life of Purpose