Related to Relevance

Related to relevance is meaning. What is meaningful? What gives meaning and purpose to life? I remember watching the Oprah Winfree show some years ago (dare I admit that I once watched Oprah regularly). Her guest was a toy collector. He bought toys, kept them in their boxes and stored them on metal shelving units in a large air conditioned building. Row after row of toys of all kinds. Oprah asked him why and flippantly he said, "He who has the most toys wins." For him leaving behind a large collection of toys that he had never enjoyed provided meaning. What meaning, I'm not quite sure, but there it was.

The search for meaning and relevance is so strong that we can find it in even the silliest places, like toy collections. Folks do make grander attempts at meaningful lives, some with awesome success. The Pharaohs constructed monuments and preserved their bodies so that they even survive today. Remember the "lost" Pharaoh that was found in a museum on the Canadian side of Niagra Fallsa a few years ago? I saw that mummy while it was still unknown. It looked ragged and I thought, how sad for what was once a living human being to be put on display like some oddity. So much for monuments that eventually crumble and turn into dust.

The most meaningful and relevant legacy is probably a very soft product, something that will last only a lifetime. Helping another human being. Whether it is providing food for a family that would likely go hungry, digging a well in some arid land so a small community of people can have portable water, or just listening to someone who needs a shoulder, those are the actions that have real meaning and relevance in life. The bible tells us to use our worldly wealth to help others. There is a lot of wisdom in that.

Still, meaning and relevance to be truly meaningful and relevant requires something more. A Word that will last and last and last... What can that Word possibly be?

About Relevance

I continue to think about what is relevant. I suppose if you were building a house information about design, foundations, structural support, plumbing, electrical systems and data integration would all be relevant information. If you have something that you need to do you find relevance in the material that addresses the topic.

But what about the topic of life. What is relevant to living life? I'm alive. I live. My life has a past, present and future regardless of what actions I take or don't take. I go through stages and life cycles without any conscious intentionality about it at all. It just happens. The specific needs and concerns of my life continually change depending on what life stage I'm experiencing. History leads me to believe that I'll have a similar experience in my future.

So what is relevant in this ever changing life lived? Is it my unique needs at the different stages of my life that dictate relevance? Is there anything relevant to life at all or is it just one experience after another? Is there something that makes life itself totally relevant for each and every moment of this continually moving life? Is there a Word that makes all of this relevant? A Word that lasts and lasts and lasts...?

Learning Curve

OK, so this is my first blog. Well, not quite since I wrote a bunch of stuff years ago like life stories and biblical reflections that I put up on a website. It wasn't called blogging back then. I know ancient history in the blog-a-sphere. Anything over 15 minutes old is beyond our ability to remember or care about.

So here I am again trying to make myself relevant in a world where relevance is relevant. Content, not so much. Wisdom, only if it is relevant to one's current immediate situation. And I'm not trying to make "myself" relevant. Only trying to find a way to make what is really relevant relevant in a world where everything is irrelevant if it is not immediately applicable.

Trying to get the Word out that once you get it, all the distractions like reading blogs are not needed. Where something richer, deeper than immediate stimulation, entertainment or self gratification soothes the savage soul with a Word that lasts and lasts and lasts.......

You're not ready to hear it yet. Your ears are not yet open. There are still too many distractions. You have to wait. And I'm not ready to give it to you. This is a learning curve. Remember?