PAX: Hermes, Sherpa, Fruit Loop, HGTV, Staubach, Breezy, Francois, Blue (Bluewater), Astro
PAX (not in Slack): None
FNGs: None
COUNT: 10
Double-digit attendance at The Escalator this morning! We had a great discussion about finding purpose and meaning in hard times.
Started with a quote by Viktor Frankl from his book Man’s Search For Meaning:
“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.”
Men shared stories about their own difficult times and offered thoughts and perspectives. We discussed the stages of grief and how meaning can be found only after acceptance. Jesus accepted his fate and gave us a shining example of meaning in suffering.
More Frankl quotes we discussed:
“Suffering ceases to be suffering as soon as it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of sacrifice.”
“Mental health depends on tension between what man has achieved and what man can become. The gap is where he finds the meaning to be fulfilled.”
We can discover meaning in life in 3 ways
1. By creating a work or doing a deed
2. By experiencing something or encountering someone – goodness, truth, beauty, nature, culture, love
3. By the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering
“The more one forgets himself by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love, the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. Self-actualization is achievable only as a side effect of self-transcendence.”
Closed with the quote:
“If there is a purpose to life at all, there must be a purpose in suffering and in dying, but no man can tell another what this purpose is. Each must find out for himself and must accept the responsibility that his answer prescribes.”
Astro took us out in prayer. Thanks to all who attended this morning and suffered through the cold….hopefully we found meaning in that suffering. MIAGD.