In Foundations class at Bodhi Spiritual Center in Chicago, we discussed the concept of divine purpose. The idea that we somehow maintain a memory of our lives when we leave the physical realm. That we have enough awareness to create a plan for our soul before we are reincarnated. We choose our parents and life experiences so that we can grow and learn on the soul level. I woke up thinking about this because of a cable show I watched the night before.
It was a series that followed young men within the prison system. They interviewed one young man who was sentenced to life without parole as a 16-year old because he killed a man. He told the interviewer that due to problems with his mom at home, he would run away from home regularly. During this time he made friends on the street and found out that a few of them were being held in a home by a local man who was known to take in runaways. He did not explain why the confrontation ended with him shooting the man five times but he seemed at peace with the event.
When I think about this in terms of soul’s purpose and living our destiny, I wondered if his primary purpose in this lifetime was to save those young men being held prisoner in that house. What if all his family turmoil and running away put him in the position to fulfill his soul’s purpose? And with his purpose fulfilled, he is now living out a life sentence in prison experiencing more freedom and peace than most of us will ever know. It is a dangerous line to tread for sure. Murder is a crime, but the mysteries of life are all around us.
Then I noticed myself trying to attribute some type of worthiness to those being saved. As if one or more of the rescued boys must become outstanding citizens and contributors to society to be worthy of his sacrifice.
Perhaps, there is the lesson. He did not save the boys so that they can become doctors, lawyers, fathers or whatever we deem worthy of safety and protection. He saved them simply because they were his friends. They were human and he did not believe they should suffer. He believed they deserved to be free.
Community Soulwork 