Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at the things in life that don’t really matter
-Francis Chan
As I have been going through this year, this quote has stuck with me. I am trying to find what matters in my life. So, what does truly matter? This is a mind boggling question when truly pondered. It is something that many spend their whole lives trying to decipher. However, now that I am going off to college, it is beginning to hit home with me in a far larger aspect. What am I going to do with my life? I am wondering. Everyone else is wondering. And I have absolutely no idea. In beginning to search for answers to this question, I have learned much more about the world around us.
We live in a world where technology has become the greatest tool and greatest weakness of our generation. Long gone are the days of face-to-face interaction. No one can go a day without some form of an electronic device, whether it is a phone, iPod, iPad, or whatever gadget is out now. We make life so much about us. The focus is on US. It is no coincidence that these things are called “I”Phones, “I”Pods, and “selfies.” The loss of humility has become a disease that runs rampant in all of us. We have lost what matters. I lost what matters.
We no longer spend time with one another, real time, not sitting behind a screen blindly responding to a text, tweet, or status update. People matter. You and I matter. Relationships matter. Where I go to college does not matter. Whether or not I know what I want to do with my life today or even tomorrow does not matter. What happens today matters. How I react today matters. When we begin to see the world around us and understand the world we are in, we see what matters. We begin to learn that God and people matter. We are called to love both, serve both, and live with both.
So, as I begin this next step in my life, I wonder where it will lead me. I no longer care. I just want to hear the stories of those around me. I want to “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life” as Thoreau said. I want to know those around me. Also, above all, I want to know God. I want to love and serve Him, because I believe that is what matters. The sooner that we get rid of the pursuit of “I” and recognize God’s relentless pursuit of us involves that we relentlessly pursue Him and those around us, the sooner we will find the truth of what matters in life.