This weekend’s pearl of wisdom comes from the Jewish Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl who reflects on his experiences in the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War in his book Man’s Search for Meaning. He highlights the fact that the key to any moment, good or bad, is finding one’s purpose. Rather than pursuing happiness, we must find our purpose.
“Happiness cannot be pursued: it must ensue. One must have a reason to “be happy.” Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to be happy, last but not least, through actualising the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.”
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
There is a meaning to life and a purpose for each person in each circumstance. The key to life is to find that purpose. This, according to Frankl, is a necessity of life that will enable us to weather any circumstance.
Ask God to help you recognise his purpose in all that you do today.
Read Philippians 1:19-26.
