What Am I Here For?

"These are the two greatest days of your life.

The day when you were born.

The day you figured out what you are here for."

                Mark Twain

Well, I guess that is he question.  Why are you here?  But I submit that why you are here is bound up in the first greatest of days--your birth!   You are here because of your parent's reproduction.  Now, we can heap all kinds of interpretations on that event that take us all the way to "trailing clouds of glory" as the poet says and we quote.  But the bottom line is that our parents got together and that's why we are here. 

Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

I have always appreciated Abraham Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs."  The pyramid begins with the most basic of physical needs and moves upward to our psychological needs.  The actualized self achieves a moral system, creativity and problem solving to enhance living.  It moves from the basic needs to survive to the pinnacle for the way we live.  What are here for?  To move through that pyramid--and in so doing--we define for ourselves the answer of "meaning"--why we are here.  Of course, that is entirely different for everyone!

 

My concern these days is "outsourcing."  Not for industry.  For our souls.  I think it is time to revise Maslow and add our "Faith Needs" into the pyramid.  We are so drawn outwardly by technology that it is called "the daily ME" at MIT and ridiculed--that the best we can do is our own preoccupation.  We simply savor the comments that we think build our self-esteem, for example, which can only come from true engagement in the world.  Prof. James Fowler, from Emory University, includes faith needs in the hierarchy.  He claims that faith needs can only be met by genuine engagement with each other and the world.  After the resurrection, what does Jesus do?  Form a monastery?  Or send the apostles into the world?  Ditto for why we are here.  It is in the GOING that we will find our unique selves and among all the needs--our ultimate need of God.