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What is my life? Until this question is explored in earnest, the best our life can be is a set of assumptions which lay undetected in the background of our daily experiences. The profundity of this question is sadly lost on the majority of our world, whom either addresses the question with very little thought of what lies below the surface, or skims completely past the question entirely. The latter reveals a person to be existing on a plane with little more consciousness than our animal friends.

This kind of life cannot launch unconsciously, nor without intent.

Behind the question is a deeper query about meaning. The question, “What is meaningful?” might at first seem subjective, but it only remains different for each of us because we vary in proximity to that which is meaningful. We each ascribe meaning to different things at different times in our lives. A peer group to a high school student, a career to a college graduate, stability to someone in their thirties, the family, success and retirement as life goes on, but none of those things are in themselves meaningful, but each is a conduit through which we presuppose meaning. These are just places we pretend or assume meaning exists. We don’t really know meaning any more than we know what our life is. So long as “the next thing” is our fictional placeholder for meaning, the authentic life eludes us.

So what exactly is our life? Is it the composition of countless chemical reactions taking place within a microscopic environment which when assembled as a whole, resemble our bodies? Perhaps at the most basic level. Certainly our bodies are “alive” but life seems to be something “other” than the body, yet tied directly to it. Life can go into a body and can leave it. While living, we have punctuated experiences where living means something more than merely being alive. This series is about waking up to what is beyond these punctuations.

So how can we launch our life if we can barely define it? Is this even within our power? No wonder so many misunderstand what is meant by a “life goal.“

To “Launch our life” is not about picking the right career, spouse, location, or religion. The launch is not the destination, it’s not even the journey, it’s the operating framework from which the entire mission begins. What a person usually means when they want to launch their life is that they are feeling a sense of existential lostness, or “dis-integration” between the various aspects of ones life. Simply put, one is in despair, having lost proximity to meaning. To not launch is as Kierkegaard would say is; to refuse to become one’s self.

Life and meaning reside immediately and constantly beyond the plane of mere existence. They are possessed as we consciously re-integrate them. The launch of life means we have gained a new perspective, and are trying a new direction, one which brings together both the physical and non-physical planes of being. Truly living is the integration fragmented pieces, which diminishes our confusion over seemingly disconnected pieces into a single satisfying whole. This is what Jesus called life “perissós“(exceptional, advantageous, extremely, abundant)

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

Launching our life is the convergence of many constellations into a single orbit.

Are you in despair? Is it possible you are in despair but can’t perceive it. It’s despair which believes our friends, our job, our family dynamics, how we maintain our belongings, what we eat, our financial situation, how we learn, and our religion are all different things?

We go through life, working on this thing, then that thing, then fixing here and reworking there. The normal life is mostly distraction, the anesthesia of meaning. Normal is to be extremely lost and not know it, or not care. This will go on and on until the monotony and tyranny of this existential angst can tolerate it no longer. This is the luminal space of transition or pain, it’s the moment of our re-birth.

Launching our life sounds like an egoic pursuit, but it’s not. The launch is when we deal with reality on it’s terms, not ours. Leaving our despair will come at great cost, its a sort of death. The abandonment of the old dis-integrated framework of who we thought we were is what creates the space for who we truly are. That true self will not be in view at the launch, we just have a deep sense its there. It requires faith.

When these words ring true, you’ll be ready. Our true life unfolds as soon as we surrender the outcomes, give up control, and gain eyes to see.

“Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.” Luke 17:32 

This isn’t about gaining a new religion, it’s liberation from all institutional powers. This isn’t about converting from or to anything, it’s about personal and global completion. It’s not a transaction, it’s transformation.

So, are you ready to launch your life?