Red Shirts

PART ONE

What are we being prepared for? What is it that we are “called to”? What is the purpose and path of the life we are meant to live?

As we set out on this journey together, I feel the need - perhaps even the responsibility - to provide some PSA’s to the readership or emerging community. First and foremost, I will ask far more questions than I will answer. My purpose in compiling these thoughts isn't to teach, but rather to start a dialogue.  My hope is that this dialogue will challenge both myself and you, reader, as we wrestle with these questions together and discover some perspective and insight. Second, as we begin this journey, I'm going to approach my own engagement with this topic chronologically to give some background on where I'm coming from. I mention that to ask that you bear with me if it at first it seems like slow going.

With that, let's begin.

As a child, I enjoyed and was intrigued by characters of history. For Halloween I was both Lincoln followed by Washington at ages five and seven. I liked biographies and enjoyed reading them as well as other historical accounts, all the while dreaming of the future and all I would do.  When I was eleven, I first attended the Dynamic Living Experience at Circle A Ranch. There I heard Skip Ross' seminar for the first of many times. Amongst his many recommendations, he suggested reading the biographies of successful people and picking things to emulate. I came of age with a focus of working for my future. What that future was going to be was never quite clear. There were going to be houses and cars and trips and making life better, yet it was never clear how I would make life better, or how those other things would come about. The future, though, would be so much better than the present.

During high school, my focus was on getting into a good college. Entering the hallowed halls of a fine institution and emerging with a degree was sure to bring me the life I wanted. Or at the very least, set me on the path to the life of my dreams. There was a good deal to enjoy during high school, but the real living of the dream seemed always some place down the road. In Empire Strikes Back, Yoda remarks of Luke, "All his life has he looked away ... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was." This aptly describes my high school experience. I was there and doing things, but real happiness was somewhere in the future. 

I would take this thought further by considering this exchange from Dazed and Confused:

Cynthia: “God, don't you ever feel like everything we do and everything we've been taught is just to service the future?”

Tony: “Yeah I know, like it's all preparation.”

Cynthia: “Right. But what are we preparing ourselves for?”

Mike: “Death.”

Tony: “Life of the party.”

Mike: “It's true.”

Cynthia: “You know, but that's valid because if we are all gonna die anyway shouldn't we be enjoying ourselves now? You know, I'd like to quit thinking of the present, like right now, as some minor, insignificant preamble to something else.”

Mike: “It's what everybody in this car needs is some good ol' worthwhile visceral experience.”

Reflecting on it now, it did seem like preparation to something. It didn't feel like a minor, insignificant preamble, but in some ways it was.

The challenge for me was that in early life, my path seemed obvious. When I got to college, I didn't feel that was the case. It all seemed less obvious, less clear. At one point, and I can take you to the exact spot I had this thought, I recall looking around and thinking, well this is it, I will get a decent paying job and live out an average kinda life.

Somewhere in my years of becoming an adult, my clear path got derailed. I felt that I was supposed to do something really impactful, yet what it was and the path to it never seemed obvious. I remember praying to God: You can make the road bumpy and obstacle-filled, just make it wide so I can find it.

I found myself unsure what the purpose of my life was and what I was called to do. Decision making became based on paying bills and getting by. Life was good, and yet it wasn't great. Was I really called to something bigger? Or was my role more like a “Red Shirt” in Star Trek?

I will now perform a public service for my non-Trek friends by explaining this reference. Typically, in nearly every episode of original series Star Trek, there would be a mission to a planet and mysterious things would happen, and then someone would die. This person was a nameless crew member in a red shirt. This death was critical to progressing the story, but you rarely remembered this person’s name. And so they became known to fans as “Red Shirts” – disposable characters identified by the color of their clothes and the brief time they spent on the screen.

Was that what I was called to be? A Red Shirt?

In the subsequent two articles, I will continue to explore this issue for myself, and I invite you along for the ride. From here, I will consider examples of historical figures who reached amazing heights. Then I'll imagine the possibility of being called to be a Red Shirt. Finally, I'll share with you the conclusions I am discovering for myself, and step you through how I am getting to them.

Author: Mike Cooke

Mike Cooke is a Dad, Circle A Leadership Team member Emeritus, a good neighbor, a follower of Jesus, a Disney parks enthusiast, and a work in progress. He is also a contributing author to the book, Daily Disciplines.