The Purpose Driven Life

I believe in synchronicity. I believe when we take time to be quiet, aware and listen we hear what Ralph Waldo Emerson called “the whispers of God”.

Last Friday morning I woke up with a horrendous pain in my left foot. Now I’m currently training for an Ironman triathlon and cranked up the training quite a bit last week. In particular I went running in quite a “gung ho” session last Tuesday evening. This was possibly where I injured my foot?

So any training I had planned for the weekend went out the window. Instead I got quiet and wondered – what’s this all about? Is this triathlon Ironman something I should really do or what?

On Saturday afternoon, my wife Sheila, asked did I want to come with her to the library, so I did. As I browsed the book shelves, I noticed a dvd film with Dr Wayne Dyer in it. Now I love Wayne Dyers wisdom and have done for years but I never saw any of his films, so I rented it along with some triathlon books on Ironman training.

The film called “The Shift – Ambition to Meaning – Finding Your Lifes Purpose” is full of many wise messages and I watched it with one of my sons late on Saturday night. The film spoke to me a lot and I found it quite moving in parts.

Now the film did get me thinking about my life and where it’s going. In particular why aren’t certain parts of my life “working” as I think they should be, especially after putting so much work into these areas?

Sunday morning arrived and my foot felt even worse. So I told my wife I’ll have to go into the hospital and get it checked. A few years ago I had a clot in my leg so when that leg gives trouble I need to make sure it’s nothing too serious. And it wasn’t thank God – it was a soft tissue problem, probably brought on by training too much too soon.

Still and all, I took the time to think about my life. Where is it going? Now I’m often thinking about such things nothing new there. But I knew this injury was a reminder to be quiet, aware and listen. I felt it was time to let go and surrender to the wisdom of the universe, above all trust it and stop thinking I have to do and control everything myself!

This morning as I had breakfast before going to teach music to children in a local school, I read the message of the day from a Norman Vincent Peale book I have, it read:

“Let go and Let God. Let him take over your life and run it. He knows how.”

What a great message, I thought. So I told my own kids, I’m going to do that today – “I’ll let God take over”.

The music class went great- my six young students and I had a wonderful start to our day, playing guitar and singing.

A while later I checked my email. I had received an email from a guy called Marcus West, whom I just connected with through an online marketing group (see www.themarcuswest.com). In his email he asked “Do you know Rick Warren?“. I first thought I didn’t, was he some famous blogger?Â So I looked him up on google and discovered he wrote a book called “The Purpose Driven Life“ and believe it or not I actually had it but never read it (I thought there was too much “God stuff” in it!!!)!

I also came across a video presentation with Rick Warren. It too is full of great wisdom and inspiration. You can view it yourself here:

All of these synchronicities including the fact that you’re reading this article are no accident. They are a divine weaving of where we need to pay attention, at least if we wish to live a life with purpose, meaning and fulfillment.

A couple of the messages from Rick that really resonated with me were:

“It is in giving our life away that we Â find meaning and significance”

“God smiles when you – Be You”

“What are you going to do with what you’ve been given”

So I picked up his book “The Purpose Driven Life“. The book is a 40 day spiritual journey which aims to answer the question “What on earth am I here for?”

I’m going to trust that this has come to me for a reason and I’m going to commit publicly here on my blog to go through the 40 day program, starting today January 17th 2011. The intention is to go through it in 40 days straight. We’ll see how it goes.

During the next 40 days I will be posting my thoughts on each lesson on my blog www.BeInspired-blog.com. If you’re reading this and feel a certain resonance with what I’m talking about here, may I suggest that you follow it too, it may be speaking to you.

Just so you know, for me this is not about any religion or trying to convert people to any particular way of thinking. It is about trusting that we are part of something greater than our individual selves. It’s about tuning into a universal intelligence which we are all part of which knows the answer to that question “What on Earth am I here for?”

At the very least it is an exploration of the whole idea of having a deep and meaningful purpose to our lives. So if you want to explore just join in – if you’re not on the BeInspired-blog email list enter your name and email into the subscribe box (top right).

“Day 1 – It All Starts with God”, starts now. I will let you know how it went in the next post.

Be Inspired!

SeÃ¡n M Kelly

The Irish Inspirational Blogger –