Why?

Mark Twain once observed that “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

I have often wondered about that second one.  Jerome Kern wrote a wonderful song that asks, “Why was I born? Why am I living? What do I get? What am I giving?”  Perhaps you have asked those questions yourself from time to time.

As you grow older you might ask yourself, “Have I done the job I was sent to do?” Or maybe if you writing a sermon you might make that question, Have I been a faithful servant? Have I used my talents well?

Or what about this lyric from the still popular song…

what’s it all about alfie

is it just for the moment we live

what’s it all about

when you sort it out, alfie

are we meant to take more than we give

or are we meant to be kind?

Perhaps if we did a complete inventory of our talents on hand and examine some of our experiences thus far in our lives we might come up with the answer to “Why?”

I keep discovering new talents.  In my office I have a natural talent for making messes. There are stacks of papers all around me that need sorting and eliminating. Most of the stuff on those papers is stored somewhere in my computer. I have so many of these stacks that I have started storing them as stacks in my empty file cabinets.  I have a world class talent for procrastination.

Some day I will clean up that mess and maybe then I will discover that elusive answer to that question, “Why?”