Aimlessness and Purposelessness = a Dead End Wasted Life

Dave is 62 years old, lives near me; he's one of the nice people. Never married. Works about 5 months a year for the County picking up trash along the nature trails. Good looking. Straight. Thinks of himself as a Christian but never goes to church. Lives on almost nothing. Rents a room and lives on what he makes in 5 months of the year working for the county. And, he even saves money. Has about ten thousand dollars in the bank. To some he is a hero. To become more of a hero to some he would have to live out of dumpsters on no money at all. That is the goal of some.

He has done this all his life. He's careful. Doesn't drink, take drugs or smoke. Costs too much. He doesn't have any friends, they cost too. Ditto a relationship with a woman. Too pricey.

Dave has lived his whole life like this. He currently doesn't own a car, but he has, and when he did, a Red Fiero, he kept it clean and in perfect condition. He was proud of keeping that car he bought used perfect. Almost obsessive.

Dave likes to read, a lot. He is very smart. But it's useless because no one knows of it.

Dave (his real name) has money, lives within his means, lives a solitary life, works, is quiet and never makes waves. He seems to have it all together, RIGHT?

Let me tell you the REST of the STORY. Dave has no ambition, he is aimless, pointless and without purpose in life. If he lives or dies it makes no difference to anyone. He has no desire nor willingness to make any kind of mark on the world system. He has succeeded in becoming completely inert.

He belongs to nothing. Doesn't go to Church or clubs or any group where he might meet someone. Why? money.

If you ask Dave what he expected to accomplish in life or more important what he yet expects, he would say, I don't know, I'll go with the flow. He has no passion or goals for ANYTHING.

He's not a hippy freak. He's just a lost adult child with no focus, no purpose and no mission in life. There was a song by the Beatles, The Fool on the Hill. It spoke about the nobility of a Dave. Well, I have met Dave, I know Dave and Dave has squandered his life without purpose. In a decade or two Dave will die and leave no vacancy where he lived. Dave is 62, it's too late for him. I know men in their thirty's for whom purpose could still be found. They must break out of the dead end life they have chosen. Most won't. They are underachievers who are underachievers because they have the capacity to be overachievers. They have always been able to just get by. They are driven by nothing. There was a book written about this. Your Own Worst Enemy: Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement. You can read the whole thing HERE.

I see this in our culture more than I wish I did. It puzzles me. How did we get here? How did people begin to just go thru life aimlessly without purpose or mission? I know many like Dave, Men and Women. Sometimes Women think that their purpose would be fulfilled if they could just find a MAN. If a woman is waiting for some man to come along to fulfil her purpose she is fooling herself. If she would just move aggressively ahead toward a goal that burns in her heart she would find a man who wants to get on board with her in the vision.

The same is true of a man. If somehow he would connect with a woman of purpose who could help him define his, he would find his place in life.

I think the lack of connectedness in our society has much to do with purposelessness. Aimlessness. People without purpose. Jesus talked about the parable of the talents. This is that.

My friend Barry Kolb wrote a good piece on work. I agree with it. The problem is I know people who work at this, piddle at that, fool around with the other and all without purpose. That's the missing component. Working hard at nothing is still purposelessness.

I know that the answer to all this aimlessness is Jesus but for these people, that's just too much work. If you are not driven by anything you will be tossed by everything.

I wish I knew the solution to this. I guess it's not up to me. I wish I could show the thirty something aimless folks I know Dave and his pointless life. Maybe it would shock them into reality. Sigh.....