Your Life Will Have Purpose - in 200 Years

During this pandemic, I have asked myself "What is a life?"?

We are born, spend a lot of time eating and sleeping - become "consumers" - work, experience pain: mentally, emotionally and physically - complain, blame the world for our problems, grow old and then die.

Yes, we also experience great joy, but for the majority of us, that is all too rare. Sadly, many of us can count on one hand, the number of times we experienced true elation and happiness.

And so it is asked: What is this all about?

What purpose does this life carry?

Many of us believe that, for one thing, we will be remembered by those we leave behind. But the reality is different: we're actually not thought about that much, if ever.?

A close family member died just 2 years ago. Today, as a family, we almost never mention his name.?

And when this person is referenced, it is not always in a good way. We tend to remember "the bad stuff" more than the good. Such is human nature.

If we do remember our loved ones who passed away, the "memory" may last a generation, at most. As more people die, the memories are eliminated over time. Until eventually, descendants do not even know we existed.

The depressed among us believe nobody cares about them. This is not true, because our parents and friends do care. It's just that they are so tied up with their own self-centered thoughts and problems, they make no time to express that caring. It is often expressed too late, when the depressed person has passed.

If many of us end up leaving a weak legacy, one of tragedy, or no legacy at all - is there any other purpose our lives will serve??

Look up to the heavens.?

There, we will find an answer. One which we may never have thought about before.

I believe that everything that is happening today - all the good, all the bad, all the chaos - does indeed have a purpose. And that purpose is to shape the future. Hopefully for the good.

Of course, we have no idea what that future is going to look like. There are those who say, as a species, we are doomed. And that there won't be a future at all for humankind.

But - the pundits and gurus that lived 200 years ago said the same thing about today.

We don't even have to go back that far.

As recently as 1970, Harvard biologist George Wald predicted that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”

Countless religious figures, including Joseph Smith who started the Mormon Church, said the world would end before 1900. It didn't.

What if everything you're doing - all that you're learning and experiencing - was entered into a massive database to serve humankind in the future?

Could that be our purpose? It is not an individual purpose, but rather, a collective purpose.

Just as we cannot remember the millions of lost souls from many years ago - but have benefitted from their collective knowledge - so too, will we contribute to the world of tomorrow - not knowing what that will be like.

Outside of this "broader good" purpose of our lives, each life is a gift from God.

Our job is to simply live it, without complaint, as best as we can.