Day 67
On Porpoise
Most Porpoise have a lifespan between 8 to 20 years. They can reach maturity around 7-12 years. Porpoise have it made. They never have to consider stuff like getting good grades in school, selecting a vocation or a field of study in higher education, finding a job or paying bills. On occasion, I have admired the beauty of the perceived simplicity of their lives.
I’ll never forget my daughter Nikki’s high school graduation several years ago. There were a few hundred students in her graduating class. As each student’s name was called, they stepped up to the microphone on the podium and shared what they intended to do after high school. Looking at the sea of graduation caps seated below me on the floor of the auditorium, I glanced at my watch and signed because missing the Yankees-Red Sox game was now a certainty. Preparing for an extended period of boredom, I took out a pen and made a chart, logging the responses of the students into rows and columns by college, trade school and occupation. Most of the students indicated they were going on to a specific college or trade school. Others said they were going to work for a year or two. Some had specific jobs they were going to begin.
A few days later, I reviewed my chart. There were 12 students who claimed they were going to be astronauts. Today, the population of the United States is said to be around three hundred million. According to NASA, there are 100 active astronauts who are qualified to be pilots, mission commanders and mission specialists.[i] The chances of those 12 students becoming astronauts, even one of them, is infinitesimal, to say the least.
There was another column on my list that seemed to stand out in stark contrast to the column that contained the 12 aspiring astronauts. There were three students who described in two words their immediate plans following graduation that really grabbed my heart. They said. “No clue.” (I’m sure their parents probably buried their heads in the graduation program, pretended to be asleep, or reached down to tie their shoes).
In April 2005, I read an interview with Rick Warren by CNN’s Paul Bradshaw, as recounted by Amit Bhatia.[ii] The content of this interview intrigued me. Warren was asked, What is the purpose of life? He responded, “In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity…This is the warm-up act, the dress rehearsal.” I thought to myself, “I wonder what those 12 students who aspired to be astronauts would think if they had been surrounded by folks all their lives who had been telling them “the purpose of this life can be contained in a nutshell? This life is a just a drill for something that is gonna go on forever. Exactly what that looks like, we can’t tell you. It’s gotta be better than this experience here on planet Earth. This life is just a dress-rehearsal, a warm-up act.” I questioned whether those 12 prospective space explorers would have even made it to graduation surrounded by well-intentioned folks espousing a worldview like that?
Later on that afternoon, I read something by authors Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren that seemed to challenge Warren’s position: “When we talk about Jesus, we must make it clear that he is not just interested in our well-being in the afterlife.” [iii] It appeared to me that there were some folks out there, just like me, who were pondering the possibility that maybe, just maybe, this life is more than a dress rehearsal. Perhaps the “purpose of life” (if there is solely one) is not intended to be reduced to the confines of a nutshell.
My thoughts wandered back to the three “no clue” students. I began to appreciate the guts it takes to stand up in front of an auditorium jammed with hundreds of strangers, your family and peers and say, “I don’t have a clue.” I wondered about the challenges ahead for the 12 driven astronaut candidates. Are they going to be able to have the flexibility to navigate through the storms of life, the riptides and currents we all face that weren’t on the charts. Maybe the “no clue” students had learned an important lesson that the aspiring space explorers had not. Perhaps the authenticity of “no clue” is symptomatic of one who possesses the fundamental flexibility and willingness to remain an inquisitive explorer at the age of seventeen, rather than boldly proclaim a certainty about becoming a member of an elite, celebrated occupation.
Maybe characterizing life as “purpose-driven” makes some folks feel comfortable. It might provide them with the sense of knowing something important and feeling safer within the predictability of those beliefs. Perhaps “Our world is populated with domesticated grown-ups who would rather settle for safe, predictable answers instead of wild, unpredictable mystery. Faith has been reduced to a comfortable system of beliefs about God instead of an uncomfortable encounter with God. Childlike faith understands that God is as capable of destroying us as he is of saving us. Risky curiosity breaks from the safety and comfort of a tame faith and ventures into the terrifying presence of a “not so tame” God.” [iv]
Maybe the “no clue” students are the one’s who are actually better prepared to live life on Porpoise. Is it possible that these are the students who will be the one’s who appreciate the unpredictable mystery of life, yearning for God to reveal more of Himself to them, diving beneath the surface of what we think we know about the meaning of this existence on Earth? Maybe, just maybe, this graduating class will include the risk takers who will live lives that express the simplicity and adventure of living a life of faith On Porpoise, as described in the following: “Being a Christian isn’t just believing in God and being good. It involves a commitment to change the world. Christians are expected to be part of a movement that will make the world that is, into the world that ought to be.”[v] Will it happen in my lifetime? I don’t have a clue. I sure hope so. I guess the phrase ought to be is important too.
NOTES
[i] http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio_activemgmt.html
[ii] http://www.southasianconnection.com/blogs/18/Interview-with-Rick-Warren-by-Paul-Bradshaw.html
[iii] Campolo, Tony and McLaren Brian D. Adventures in Missing The Point – How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered The Gospel, Zondervan Grand Rapids, Michigan © Copyright 2003 by Youth Specialties, p. 105.
[iv] Yaconelli, Michael Dangerous Wonder – The Adventure of Childlike Faith, NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Michael Yaconelli, p.40.
[v] Campolo, Tony. You Can Make A Difference-High Voltage Living in a Burned Out World, W Publishing Group Nashville, TN Copyright 1984 by Anthony Campolo, p. VIII.
