Posted by My favourite film is Braveheart – I’ve probably seen it 50 times! If you’ve never seen it… that’s Friday night taken care of! Braveheart is of course the story of a man, called William Wallace who finds a personal purpose in leading Scotland to fight for freedom from the English in like the 15th century, though I doubt its particularly historically accurate. Wallace didn’t always have a sense of wanting to do that, but it was when his wife is cruelly murdered that his purpose and passion are clarified. Part of the struggle for Wallace is uniting the different Scottish camps and clans, who were very divided to somehow stand and fight together. And there is a chap, Robert the Bruce who is very influential in getting that to happen.
But then one day in the battlefield, Wallace is knocked off his horse and it turns out it was Robert the Bruce who knocked him off. All this time Robert the Bruce had been fighting for the other side, he’d been bribed by the enemy and Wallace’s belief in unity and strength among the Scottish clans turned out to be an illusion. There and then he just lies down in the grass, and he gives up. The story of Braveheart doesn’t end there but if you’ve ever felt like Wallace did in that moment, you’re not alone. We each have our individual experiences with purpose and it’s a subject that calls upon the things which are deepest and touches on the things we value most and hope for most. But it’s important to remember this doesn’t have to be where the story end.
I’m writing at a very poignant moment in history – as many of us try to get back to normal life after the ravaging effects of COVID-19. The experiences of COVID in our society have been on such a spectrum – some have suffered a lot, because of the illness, because you lost someone – or perhaps in a more secret, unseen way, because you lost a dream or ambition which was a sense of purpose you used to feel but now it’s gone. It’s been a season of utter defeat. For others, there are some who honestly loved lockdown – getting to work from home, having more time with loved ones – getting to put the kids to bed each night, what’s important, how and why they’re living has come to feel more clear than ever.
In many ways, COVID is a microcosm of the complex picture of life itself – a tapestry which we know has all sorts of brown patches and horrible colours, sickness and death, inequalities and injustices that we know exist. But brown patches that are interwoven with brighter colours, and silver linings; how we’ve come together, experienced solidarity, shown real resilience as a society and maybe there are more optimistic days ahead. So just looking at that picture, with all its complexity, here you are reading this today with an opportunity to ask whether everything that’s happened “out there” can inform a personal and direct response in terms of the world “in here.”
Look around you today. Then look in the mirror today. There’s no one who will ever read this blog like you, there is no one else in the world like you, no one who has the amazing combination of gifts and talents and relationships that you do – no one who has the potential to bless the people in your life like you, no one who can bless the world like you and live a life of significance like you.
Living Telos 