Only God can take you where you were born to go. THere are a lot of roads you can choose, but one path chooses you.
After that memorable quote, McManus brings up his previous entry, where he has a fictitious conversation with Elvis Presley, telling him that nothing matters, because there is no God and we are all insignificant. The author tells us that it's the right thing to do if that were true. Even though we feel it's a moral wrong to tell someone that they are insignificant, it is actually a moral right to tell them this if there is no god, we're all just drifting through time and space, no progress...
It's interesting that these things conflict. We sense some moral outrage to have one human tell another that he or she is insignificant; but we refuse to believe that there is a God Who gave us significance. We have this innate drive in us, but let's pretend that it evolved or is artificial. A koala bear apparently sleeps 22 hours a day, waking only to eat and poop. Eating eucalyptus, apparently, is like being sedated. While sedation might feel really good at times, it would be a shame to be sedated all the time.
He leaves us with a few other unnerving thoughts:
Our need to become is intimately connected with our need to create. You cannot engage the future without activating your creative nature. The more proactive you become in pursuing your destiny, the more responsibility you will take for your life. When you choose to become, you become an enemy of the status quo. To become is to change and to bring change.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at November 3, 2007 06:05 PM