Tag: meaning

Blessed Interruptions

Posted on by Mike Nuckolls

I have become weary with all the memes bemoaning the year 2020. Everyone has their own perspective, I know, but when I read the memes, I instinctively recoil at the premise that this has been a year we should just write off.

 

To be sure, 2020 is one of unimaginable heartache, suffering, loss, challenge, and soul-searching. There is no established measure for the disruption imposed, the devastation wreaked, or humility required. There are many among us for whom we need to pray for strength, support wholeheartedly, and love incessantly.

 

I guess what bothers me about those 2020 memes is the implication that all is lost. While recognizing that I have been spared the worst of the times, I cannot escape the great personal fulfillment found within the chaos. I was sitting by my son when he learned to pronounce words, read sentences, and read a story. I have supported my wife as she became an online teacher. I had time to design and hand build a play set that turned out pretty darn good. I created the michaelswords.com website for my writing and this blog about purposeful life. I picked up my guitar for the first time in 10 years. I created a website for my brother’s beach place. I have had lunch nearly every day with my family. I have had time to think.

 

My friend David once told me, “Nothing unexpected or new happens in the day to day.” That really resonated with me. I relish change, have to be moving and doing, and crave new experiences. I tend to thrive when there is a little chaos. I sometimes create interruptions to keep things interesting or find better paths (apologies to those for whom I owe them).

 

The unexpected and new tend to happen in the interruptions in life by definition.  But unexpected and new doesn’t necessarily mean bad. In most instances, the good is there for the taking.

 

I have been captivated by Ricky Gervais’ Afterlife on Netflix (To those offended by vulgar language: This is not the show for you.). His character struggles with the heinous interruption of the untimely death of his wife. Through his struggle to live on, he embraces an unfiltered honesty that forms unusual and unexpected relationships, imparts wisdom to those around him, and pushes others to open their lives.

 

My response to those memes is this: Even in the worst of interruptions, there is a possibility of blessings. They are there if we look for, create, and embrace them.

 

#purpose #purposefullife #interruption #2020 #afterlife #blessings #unexpected

Joy in the Darkness

Posted on by Mike Nuckolls

My friend Erin recently posted about receiving her long-earned, much deserved tenure as a professor. In the post, she confessed her hesitancy to broadcast it for fear it was somehow not important, relevant or ran counter to the prevailing mood during this time of COVD-19 and stay-at-home orders. My reply? We absolutely should be sharing these moments of joy at a time like this.

I firmly believe that even during the darkest moments of life, there is purpose and meaning, joy and hope. Don’t label me an optimist; sometimes I am quite the opposite. Instead, it is the realist in me that sees that practically there can always be something gained during times of profound challenge, loss, and suffering.

If you haven’t yet caught on, this blog focuses on my personal pursuit of purpose and meaning in my own life and the lives of others. Pay attention and you will find that I am a big fan of neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning.

One of Frankl’s keys to finding purpose and meaning is the act of suffering. Frankl contends, “If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering…Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.” Meaning may come from the suffering itself, the way sufferer or others respond to it, or in the attitude we choose in dealing with the suffering and its aftermath. It is important to know that Frankl’s first wife, father, mother, and brother were killed in Nazi concentration camps. Frankl himself was one of only a handful who survived Auschwitz.

In just the past seven days, my friend’s career accomplishment, discovering that a friend with whom I was close in college just moved nearby, the birth of a child by a colleague, and helping my child learn to read his first sentences have all brought me a sense of meaning. COVID-19 or not, that is a pretty wonderful week. I celebrate these bits of joy within the darkness.

What have been your moments of joy this past week?

Lesson from the Coronavirus

Posted on by Mike Nuckolls

According to Britannica, coronavirus particles measure about 120 nanometers in diameter. To put that into perspective, that means over a hundred million coronavirus particles can fit on the head of a pin. And yet, in the U.S. alone, these little guys are responsible for hundreds of thousands of infections, thousands of deaths, 95% of the country under stay-at-home orders, millions unemployed, and thousands of businesses facing crises of existence.

I don’t know about you but that certainly puts life into perspective for me. It can be frightening to think that something we cannot see, touch, or smell can have such an effect. At least until it is put under an electron microscope, the only way we even know things like this exist is by the effect they have. In other words, it is not the virus itself but its purpose that packs the punch.

It is easy sometimes to think of ourselves as insignificant in the grand scheme of life. Several weeks working, eating, sleeping, playing, and everything else from our 6/10ths of an acre in Lewisville have done nothing to dispel this notion. But what the diminutive coronavirus reveals is that significance is not measured in size, shape, state, or length of existence, but in the role played within that existence.

Once again, I am reminded that life is a much bigger picture than I can ever imagine. Rather than overwhelming my importance, I see that vastness as elevating the importance of my being intentional in the role I play. It is my hope that on the other side of this, we all seek with intentionality the role we can play in the infinite picture of life.