Something Bigger than Myself

“It is important that life is lived with a sense of partaking in something bigger than ourselves.” – David Adam, A Desert in the Ocean.

I read this line today and the devil’s advocate side of my brain said: “Why? Why is it important to live life with a sense of being part of something bigger than myself? What if there ISN’T anything larger? What if God/Spirit/Universe/Divinity is a myth? It’s not as if God walks among us. Won’t I have wasted my life if I live it imagining I’m part of something bigger, and it turns out that this ‘something bigger’ isn’t real?”

So I imagined living my life without belief in anything divine. I imagined throwing myself into my passions, my pleasures, my profit, my gain. Because I’m a charitable person, this life I imagined involved helping others, being kind, being involved in civic organizations, etc.

Then I imagined that same life led with a sense of Community – of being linked by Spirit with others, the world, the universe. And my heart opened and tears came to my eyes. I felt excited and eager. I felt so happy!

So, this is the answer to my question: It is important, because it fills my life with joy if I live with a sense of greater purpose and community, with the belief that there is Divine Presence and Connection. Whether it’s ‘real’ isn’t at all relevant: it’s the wrong question, the wrong frame.  What matters is if it’s true, and it IS true, because it causes my life to resonate and my spirit to glow.

I can call it God, Spirit, Divine, Sacred, Universe: I can give it any name I’d like. But it is more than merely ‘important’ that I live with a sense of being part of Something bigger than myself. It is essential. It is integral. It is necessary, if I am to live MY life at all.