Burnt Away

It's been my experience that I've been happiest when I've been involved with other people. Doing something larger than myself. Building relationships.

That's why some of my first advice to college students is "Get Involved." Starting out in new place surrounded by unfamiliar people can be daunting, especially if like me you are not the most outgoing person to begin with. And often it is only by partnering with others that we can begin to take ownership of our surroundings and feel as if we are a part of something beyond us.

While it is easy for me to imagine life without such connections--Heaven knows I've been there before--such thoughts are not pleasant ones. Life lived only for oneself can be cold and dark. Inward and backward. Sad, small, and lonely. Believe me, I know.

And I have to think that there's more to it than this. If, after all, simply getting involved in something with others is important for our emotional and spiritual well-being, how much more foundational it is to find that thing which we were made for and throw ourselves into it.

Here, I guess, is what I am saying: don't do things half-heartedly. If you know your calling and life's purpose, do not ever hold back. Be who you were meant to be. Spend yourself in the work of your life. Give all you have. Stop worrying about what will happen and just put it all on the line.

You see, we spend ourselves in so many things that fall so short of what each of us were specifically made for. We've all done it...I just hope that we can somehow learn to stop and then start realizing how much more we are called to. Hope much all those bits of ourselves we waste cannot ever come back.

Some might urge caution, telling us that we should slow down, hedge our bets. Part of that makes sense, but part of it makes me sad. Makes me feel that in doing so we would fall woefully short of where we should be.

After all, how could it possibly be a bad thing to fully burn the candle of our lives if giving light was our purpose in the first place?