The Haunting Questions.

2020 was a year like no other. Among the curses and gifts of this season has been the slowing of life …..the ceasing of so many activities, which has left us with plenty of time to reflect on what is really important to us. We haven’t had our normal busyness to drown out the haunting questions. What do I want? What defines my life? What gives me hope? What is the meaningful life that I am running towards?

These questions are challenging. They force us to face fears and be honest with ourselves - brutally honest. The questions serve as invitations to access our deep desire and they require incredible sacrifice, surrender and courage to live in response to. They both reveal that we never fully arrive in life, and that there are always opportunities to lean into who we were created to be.

I (Chad) had a conversation last week with a successful businessman in Aspen in his 50’s. He has bought and sold one company, has now built a second successful business, and in most people’s eyes, he has “made it”. And yet, there is a desire inside of him that he is hesitant to act on because of the sacrifice and courage it would require. This man reminds me that success and courage are not necessarily the same thing.

Victor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning is about his experience in concentration camps as a Jewish psychiatrist. Based on his own experience and those of his friends in the camps, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering in life, but we can find meaning in it and move forward with renewed hope and purpose. At the heart of his theory, known as logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not for pleasure, success, or power but the pursuit of what we find meaningful.

There is an invitation in this slower season to sit with the questions. What do I truly want in life? What is the courageous life that I am pursuing - the life that will give my suffering meaning? What fear is holding me back? What is in me that I haven’t spoken to anyone?