"This is the moment, it's on the line
Which way you gonna fall?
In the middle, between wrong and right
But you know after all
It's your life
Whatcha gonna do?
The world is watching you
Everyday the choices you make
Say what you are who your heart beats for
It's an open door
It's your life"
-Francesca Battistelli
I always come to that phrase (live to be forgotten) when I am tempted to believe that making it big or living a glamorous life will only suffice. Today so many people in our generation that is paying attention to whats happening in the world and in our age, they are questioning everything. They are not satisfied. I believe that they are searching for truth. However that quest for truth tends be manifested into questions that always comes up... what do I live for? Is everything relative, if so why and if not why? Can I make any real change? Questions like these plague our generation and it either leads to apathy and ignorance, despair and cynicism, or it leads to a beautiful tension and long-suffering that will produce an outcome that many do not imagine (the possibilities are endless btw).
Today I was asking myself what am I living for? I realize that I live for the vain sometimes. Put that on repeat, and thats me. I look at other people's lives and I realize how unsatisfied I am with mine. I begin to fantasize about how I can be more satisfied if I did this, or did that, if I had this or had that. Eventually I tell myself how amazing and satisfied I would be if everyone on earth knew or remembered me for an important reason. Then I would be satisfied. Wow... talk about a huge task huh? I want to be remembered. Known. Appreciated. Loved. Etc....
As soon as I start thinking like that, I realize the Holy Spirit is saying something (in a very gentle way mind you): "Really? You want to be known?" I realize He really is saying do I really want to waste my life away like that, do I want to do something that was not intended for me. I realize how seriously selfish it kind of is to want that. People in our generation have been raised beginning on day one as the special generation that can do anything they want. We cant help it if we want all the spotlights and arrows pointing at us I guess. But like I said before, those of us that pay attention to the issues that are really happening in the world, the injustices that happen to those on the margins, to our earth, to women, orphans, minorites, families, etc, etc... we realize that there is so much more to this.
When I think about this, a quote I remember that Patrick Fung said at a conference that was profound, "Live to be forgotten." Patrick Fung was a successful doctor but gave up everything he had including his savings to go and be a missionary.
I realize that the main goal is to not live to be remembered but to live to be forgotten. When I live to be forgotten, I see the broken family that needs encouragement. I see a friend that just needs to be listened to. I see the earth that just needs an advocate. I see the big and small. When I forget myself and put others first... I realize that it is better to live to be forgotten. It is more satisfying because in the end you are making the biggest investment and change in the big and small ways (whether through the public, people's individual lives, a family, etc.).
If our generation chose to live this way, WOW. It would create a lot of change. And honestly, YES, I am one of those that believe change can happen with one person. When one person lives to be forgotten, it is contagious...
I could go into this so much more.... but it is almost 2 am. Live to be forgotten. Try it out. Dont live to be remembered or known. Dont live trying to find the temporary highs or finding satisfaction in the things of this world... live to be forgotten.
"Things aren't always what they seem
You're only seeing part of me
There's more than you could ever know behind the scenes
I'm incomplete and I'm undone
But I suppose like everyone
There's so much more that's going on behind the scenes"
-Francesca Battistelli
