Need for purpose
By: Navin (May 23rd, 2010)
Hi Phil,
Here are some pictures that I took on my trip to some of the islands in the Indian Ocean. We started off our journey some six months before we reached our destination. It was basically an adventure trip where we were going to explore some of the scarcely populated islands in the world. Hardly has any man set foot on these islands because of the tough conditions of the ocean, lack of edible food and water and also the dangerous tribes that lived there for many years.
As we closed in on these islands we just wanted to have a look at the underwater creatures and vegetation that existed. While scuba diving, I came across a human skeleton with a nicely sealed bag made out of animal skin tied around his wrist. This was a fascinating sight as I was sure that these were the remains of some tribesman. I went closer to have a look. The bag was heavy and I was getting restless to have a look. I took the bag along with me back to the deck where I opened it in the company of other mariners.
It contained a document made of papyrus and had writings in an unknown language. We didn’t know how to decipher this language so we decided to give it to some experts to make some sense out of it. After years of research, the team recently declared its results to the whole world which was nothing less than shocking to me. The writing was by an official record keeper of a nearby island. He had been carefully recording the happenings in this island and was unknowingly passing it over to us.
As I read the report I came to know that this island was an isolated place but the home to one of the cruelest and the most inhuman cannibals. It was a huge island till some years back and had a strong governing body made of the chief and his skilled hunters. They ruled over the land with an iron fist. They had the rule that every first born needs to be presented as an offering to the chief. The infants were brought before the community, butchered and then eaten up by the chief and his officials. Surprisingly this community had no gods to follow but only the fear of a bestial chief and an equally depraved set of hunters and officials.
They thought that the island was the beginning and the end of the world. They believed that they were the only people that existed and that there was nobody more powerful than them. They had not seen any humans outside of their community and that time and chance gave birth to them out of the interaction of the natural forces of land, sea, wind and fire. They were not only powerful but also intelligent because the island had evidences of great architecture, sophisticated tools, good organizational skills and a well developed language.
But this prosperous people faced the greatest catastrophe of its history one day when the island was hit by incessant rains accompanied by huge waves which washed away all that they had built, unceremoniously killed its powerful chief and left the remnant on the brink of death, literally. They noticed that the island was slowly being eaten away by the waters of the ocean. The island which protected them and kept them thriving was now gone as the water levels kept increasing at a steady pace year after year.
To make matters worse the island was hit by an epidemic and gobbled up most of the population in a very short span of time .Large scale killings happened among the people to keep themselves alive and a power struggle among the officials had left the island on the verge of extinction. And there came a time where the record keeper was the only man left on the island.
He wrote that since their world was slowly sinking in the rising waters the end was inevitable. He found himself hopeless as he felt that he was fighting against impossibilities. There were no women left to leave posterity. Found no purpose in making new homes or huts as the nature was bent on destroying them. The only companions he had were birds and animals but their destiny was similar to his.
But he wrote that he could not go on like this as the fear of inevitable death and destruction was too much to handle. He had to find a purpose to keep him going no matter how meaningless they looked in the framework of a sinking land. Every morning he would get up and till the land. Make homes which would look good on the sinking landscape. He would go hunting. He took up bigger projects to protect the island from the waves. All he needed was a purpose to live.
His beliefs taught him that there was no one beyond the blue sky above or the setting sun in front to save him from his plight. No one, who could give him a purpose which was beyond this limited island. Who could restore the relationships that he lost or the things that his toil achieved before the waves came? A life giver beyond this small world was foolishness to him.
One day as he sat on the shores, he once again saw the return of those dreadful dark skies. They approached him and his isolated land, like a messenger of death. Soon they gathered strength from all corners of the sky. The waters began to rumble and hit hard against the barriers he had made. He decided it was time. He went in, wrote the final lines on his records. Came out and looked for help from the heavens. But because he knew there were no gods and no immortality, he decided to accept death with a smile. He tied this bag on his wrist, walked in to the ocean and gave himself up to those deadly waters.
I don’t think it was the waters that killed him. Rather the consuming feeling that all his small purposes to keep going looked so insignificant in the absence of a savior and a hope for a life beyond. If he had kept his faith and kept going then he would have met Cristo who discovered this tiny island a few days after this storm. And all his acts of striving would have moved from insignificance in to the shining light of a God who makes all our acts purposeful in the reality of his being and the promise of eternity.
Finally as I close this letter I am happy to tell you that I have reconsidered my views on evolution, an inevitable end to the earth, a godless world and a hopeless death. Because I don’t see any purpose if man was just an offspring of pure time and chance. Rather God and immortality makes everything that I do so much more purposeful.
Adieu.
Ted.