As we exist, we con­tinue to find or pro­duce mean­ing and pur­pose in all that we be, do, and relate. By mean­ing I speak of the rea­sons by which we have found our­selves in this present moment as we look to the past; by pur­pose I speak of the over­whelm­ing desires of the soul and where direc­tion pulls us as we look to the future from our present moment. Mean­ing is a response to the paths we have walked on, while pur­pose is a protest to the present as we walk towards our tomor­row. Mean­ing looks back­ward, while pur­pose looks for­ward. Response and protest are the con­stant flux we find our­selves in as we seek to exist. Organ­isms are in a con­stant state of imbal­ance in a given envi­ron­ment (that is what makes some­thing ‘alive’), and our response and protest are what gives us humans the power to exist in our given environments.

In our exis­tence we con­struct these real­i­ties. The response we come to might be deserved, imag­ined, false, or quite nec­es­sary. The protest we claim might be high-minded, self-seeking, hum­ble, and maybe sac­ri­fi­cial. We come to these real­i­ties of mean­ing and pur­pose, or response and protest, in our lives through our being, doing, and relating.

Mean­ing and pur­pose find their hermeneu­tic in the human psy­che. We seek to explain our real­ity, whether it be in our response or in protest, in each present moment. In a given moment we find our­selves respon­ders to the imme­di­ate and dis­tant past, and pro­test­ers to the imme­di­ate and dis­tant future. There is immea­sur­able poten­tial in each given moment. It is in a sim­ple moment that we can respond and protest our existence.

What seems to be the con­stant prob­lem with us humans is that we fail in our respond­ing and protest­ing. In our respond­ing we might respond to a thing not need­ing a response, or respond erro­neously to some­thing that required a response. In our protest­ing we might protest a thing was quite nec­es­sary in our lives, or fail to protest some­thing that was never meant to be a part of our lives.

In our fail­ures to respond and protest cor­rectly we bear our great­est chal­lenges, strug­gles, and bur­dens. It is the power of response and protest in a moment, and the effect of our col­lec­tive responses and protests in our life­time that define us. Specif­i­cally they affect our being, doing, and relating.

In the thick of all of this, I want to speak of peace and chaos. Peace is the real­ity of one’s cor­rect responses and protests. Peace is where mean­ing and pur­pose have found its place in one’s life. Stat­ing it another way, one may find peace in respond­ing cor­rectly to the past, and right­fully protest­ing the future. Peace is not a change of affairs. Peace can­not change the past, nor can it always bring about a desired future. Peace rather is a state of being, doing, and relat­ing. Peace flows from within, though it is affected by what is from with­out. Chaos, con­trary to peace, is the real­ity of one’s incor­rect response and protests. Chaos implies that mean­ing and pur­pose have been dis­placed in a person’s life. Chaos in one’s life does not imply nat­ural chaos. It is rather a state of being, doing, and relat­ing. One can be in the calmest envi­ron­ment and still be in com­plete chaos, because he/she has responded incor­rectly to the past and con­tin­ues to incor­rectly protest their future.

Our lives move between respond­ing and protest­ing cor­rectly or incor­rectly. Though we may desire con­stant peace in our lives, it is hard to grasp. This is because there is always some­thing that dis­places our cor­rect responses and protests. We are not per­fect in this endeav­our, though we may try.