Jason Salamun

Can you answer this question in one sentence?

What

Is

The

Meaning

Of

Life?

?

?

?

?

He cried.

The mailman, who collects the mail from the where my P.O. box is located, cried.

He’s a gruff, middle-aged fellow with his head shaved bald, thick goatee, and a baritone voice that’s difficult to understand. His demeanor is as approachable as  Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants.

For the last couple of years, our paths have crossed as I swing by to pick up my mail at the same time he collects everyone else’s.  At first, I didn’t think I should bother him. He always looked so busy (and mad), but I would walk by him as he emptied the bins from the mailboxes, flash a quick smile, and tell him to have a nice day.  He’d reply with a nod.

Eventually, I mixed it up by asking, “How’s it going?”  He would reply, “Can’t complain.”  For two adult males, that’s a pretty deep chat, and this has been the extent of our interaction the last couple of years.  From time to time, I would change it up by asking, “What’s up?” or “Big plans this weekend?” or “How ’bout this weather?”  But, keeping to form, he would answer back with replies no greater than five words and the same sourpuss expression on his face.

Last week, our paths crossed, and I asked my typical, “How’s it going?’ drive-by question on my way to check the mail.  This time he paused, which led me to pause, and behind his shades, I saw a tear drop.  I asked him if everything was okay. He said it wasn’t and pointed to his wedding band.  It turns out, after nearly 25 years of marriage, his wife had left him for another man.  I put my hand on his shoulder in sympathy as he revealed how hopeless he feels.  How he’s been trying to stay busy, but eventually, he has to go to bed, and that’s when it hurts the most. I just listened and tried to encourage him.

“The one thing keeping me going right now,” he admitted, “is my son, who’s in college. He’s all I got.”  He went on to tell me how proud he was of him and also how he’s still hoping his wife comes to her senses and returns home.  ”I’d take her back in a heartbeat.”

In my mind, I was asking God for the right words or gesture to share.  One thing that came to mind was, “hope remains.”  We talked about hope. About having something to live for.  About how he has a lot of life ahead of him.  He agreed, but I know it’s difficult to see the sky when you feel like you’re buried underground.

We were interrupted by another worker and we gave our farewell’s as he loaded packages and I moved on to check my mail. As I walked back out, he motioned me over, gave me a big bear hug, and thanked me.  I told him I’d be praying for him. With a cracking voice he said, “You have no idea how much that means, bubba.”  I’ve never been called bubba before.  It’s kinda redneck, but I took it as a term of endearment.

I haven’t seen him yet this week. I’m sure I will.

I hope he calls me bubba.

I hope he’s clinging to hope.

I hope he comes to know the source of it.

I wonder how many opportunities like this I miss because I’m too busy or too caught up in my own little world? Too many, I’m sure.

God, open my eyes to see as you see and to love my neighbor as myself. Amen.

Several years ago, I was wrestling with what to do with my life. I had this nagging sense that God was calling me to something, I just didn’t know what. It seemed so many around me knew exactly what to do with their lives. And here I was-full of passion yet lacking direction. I was at a crossroads.

It was frustrating.

On a summer weekend during that time, I went to the grocery store to pick up some items for dinner. As I was checking out, I looked near the entrance and spotted a familiar face standing there waiting for someone.

It was Brock Lesnar.

I knew of Brock. He and I are the same age and I had heard about this beast from Webster, SD from some high school wrestling buddies. He later went on to become the NCAA heavyweight champion in college and found fame and fortune as a pro wrestler in WWE.  In 2004, he left the WWE to pursue a dream of being in the NFL and tried out for the Minnesota Vikings. Despite his rare mix of strength and quickness, it didn’t work out, and he was cut.

I met Brock following all of this.

People unknowingly walked by him as they entered and exited the grocery store, but I knew who he was. After I paid for my items, I walked up to him and introduced myself. He was much kinder than I expected from the pro wrestling persona he had on TV. I asked what he was doing in Rapid City and he said he was going to hang out at his family’s cabin in the Black Hills, do some 4-wheeling, and try to figure out what’s next for his life.

It turns out he was at a crossroads too. He mentioned he had options to return to the WWE, possible go to Japan to wrestle, or maybe start training for mixed-martial arts. He just wasn’t sure which way to go. It was clear he had the same inner turmoil as me (albeit in different ways).

Brock then asked me about my life. I told him I was in a similar spot and that I understood what he was going through. We bantered back and forth about each others situations. It was refreshing talking to someone who got it. No one was asking for autographs or pictures, it was just two dudes talking.

Then, his wife walked over to Brock and he introduced her to me. Not wanting to be “that guy” who kept them from enjoying a peaceful time together, I decided to wrap up our chat and mentioned that he had too much talent to not be utilized and wished him well. He wished me well too and we both went on our way.

As I was driving home, I was taken back by our simple chat. I’m sure Brock doesn’t remember our exchange at all. He probably gets that sort of interaction all the time. But for me, it was a gift from God. It was like God was saying that I wasn’t the only one in the in-between. Even those “who’ve made it” experienced what I was experiencing. I was normal (okay, that’s debatable).

Since then, I’ve followed Brock’s career. He eventually entered the world of MMA and today, he is the UFC heavyweight champion after only a handful of fights. This past year, he was crippled by a serious intestinal disorder and it wasn’t clear he’d fight again. And by some accounts, it wasn’t clear how long he would live. But now, he’s alive and well and he did fight again. This past weekend, as I watched his dramatic victory against Shane Carwin at UFC 116, it was goosebumps city. There was the guy who wasn’t sure what to do next with his life now doing something remarkable with it.

Donald Miller says, “A story involves a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.” That’s certainly true of Brock Lesnar and it’s also true of you and I.

Perhaps you’re smack dab in the middle of the in-between. You’re frustrated. You feel like life is passing you by. You sense you’re meant for more.

If that’s you, you’re in good company, my friend. Anyone who’s ever done anything worthwhile has been where you are right now. Even Jesus had his wilderness experience, his in-between time, before he changed the story of everything.

My advice is to pray, go the direction that’s most loving, utilize your God-given talents, and look for opportunities along the way. And if you don’t see any, create them.

Don’t just see your life as it is, get a vision for what it could be, and go for it!

The world needs you – to do – what only you can do.

This happens when you – become the you – God created you to be.

On Origins
“The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born.”

On Friendship
“Friendship arises out of mere companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.”

On Being Made New
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

On Existence of God
“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?”

On Freedom
“Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk.”

On Suffering
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

On Desire
“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

On Action
“Enough had been thought, and said, and felt, and imagined. It was about time that something should be done.”

On God’s Supremacy
“But then again of course I know perfectly well that He can’t be used as a road. If you’re approaching Him not as the goal but as a road, not as the end but as a means, you’re not really approaching Him at all.”

On Stupid Questions
“Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round?”

This video by Sean Mullens is simple, inspiring, and full of goodness.

“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.

You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the sermon “But, If Not” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967.

In his book, “Wishful Thinking”, Frederick Buechner wrote, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

I refer to that as the sweet spot.

Have you considered what that might be for you?

What are those things in which you are most passionate?

Those activities and interests that get you the most excited?

Those talents that you most enjoy exercising?

That work that doesn’t feel like work?

How could they be used to be good news to this world?

To bring light into darkness?

To tell a better story?

Discover the intersection of your joy and the world’s need and dive in.

Ponder that. Pray though that. Act on that.

And let me encourage you to go for it!

You were created to be a blessing to this world.

To show love and offer hope.

What are you waiting for?

You’ve got one life.

Make it count.