I learned just recently - and it came as no surprise - that 60% of 25-35 year-olds feel unfulfilled at work; and 90% of 30-40 year-olds want to leave conventional business jobs for something more satisfying*.
Being what's commonly know as a 'baby boomer', I grew up in a period of ever-increasing wealth and ever-extending choice. For most of my generation, gaining financial security and acquiring material possessions became the major goals in life. However, having once achieved those things, we somehow found that they failed to satisfy the deepest needs that we felt inside.
If you are in your teens or twenties today, you probably either grew up with financial security and take it for granted; or you have looked at the rising costs of housing, pensions and healthcare and concluded that financial security is beyond your reach. You are one of the generation that seeks fulfilment in 'experiences'. I predict that this will prove to be an equally fruitless and unsatisfying exercise!
All of this seems like a sad reflection on modern life - but the theme is not new. It's as old as the hills. Thousands of years ago, a Jewish geezer called Isaiah felt moved to ask a question that's as relevant today as it was then. It's recorded in the Bible:
"Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?" (Isaiah 55: 2)
Isaiah was writing to a very different audience at a very different time, and in a very different place. But they did have one thing in common with modern-day society. They had killed off God - or at least the idea of God - and eliminated him from their daily lives.
It might seem like a liberating idea. But when you eliminate your creator, you eliminate the purpose for your own existence. And when you eliminate your purpose, you eliminate any possibility of satisfaction and fulfilment.
Isaiah's ancient wisdom points to a third way - the pursuit of the our creator, whose age-long invitation sounds out as loud and clear today as it did then:
"Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live."
Source: Dr Patrick Dixon, www.globalchange.com
Being what's commonly know as a 'baby boomer', I grew up in a period of ever-increasing wealth and ever-extending choice. For most of my generation, gaining financial security and acquiring material possessions became the major goals in life. However, having once achieved those things, we somehow found that they failed to satisfy the deepest needs that we felt inside.
If you are in your teens or twenties today, you probably either grew up with financial security and take it for granted; or you have looked at the rising costs of housing, pensions and healthcare and concluded that financial security is beyond your reach. You are one of the generation that seeks fulfilment in 'experiences'. I predict that this will prove to be an equally fruitless and unsatisfying exercise!
All of this seems like a sad reflection on modern life - but the theme is not new. It's as old as the hills. Thousands of years ago, a Jewish geezer called Isaiah felt moved to ask a question that's as relevant today as it was then. It's recorded in the Bible:
"Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?" (Isaiah 55: 2)
Isaiah was writing to a very different audience at a very different time, and in a very different place. But they did have one thing in common with modern-day society. They had killed off God - or at least the idea of God - and eliminated him from their daily lives.
It might seem like a liberating idea. But when you eliminate your creator, you eliminate the purpose for your own existence. And when you eliminate your purpose, you eliminate any possibility of satisfaction and fulfilment.
Isaiah's ancient wisdom points to a third way - the pursuit of the our creator, whose age-long invitation sounds out as loud and clear today as it did then:
"Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live."
Source: Dr Patrick Dixon, www.globalchange.com
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