Integer Leadership Consulting

In the midst of the sights, colors, and emotions of this Christmas season, my thoughts are often focused upon those who have encountered the very turbulent waters of unemployment resulting from involuntary job loss. The loss of a job or, more importantly, the loss of an opportunity to labor and contribute toward a worthy goal, is devastating. With the precipitous rise of national unemployment figures, I can only imagine the tens of thousands of people this season who anguish over a fundamental loss of meaning as well as the fear that comes from the specter of economic privation. For these, what is meant to be a meaningful season is full of what appears to be meaninglessness. Yet it is here, in this place, that new meaning…a “deeper magic” to use C. S. Lewis’ expression…can be discovered.

Much of what I have read about the emergence of meaning comes from literature that focuses on losses. Viktor Frankl, Richard Tedeschi, Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, and Salvador Maddi are four scholars who make it very clear that there is much to be gained from encountering losses…even those which are particularly devastating. Losses have a stripping effect. They can easily and quickly dismantle our psychological schemas and spiritual scaffolding or belief systems. When we are caught in the throws of unrelenting struggle and hardship, we can become more existentially aware, meaning, we can have a heightened sense of awareness of who we are, why we are here, and the contribution we are to leave with others. Getting clear on these questions is critical to the type of life we desire to live. When we have neglected answering these questions or when we try to satisfy our deepest yearnings and longings with all things transcient, we are in trouble when our life is stripped bare by suffering.

I’ve always felt the season of Advent and the celebration of the birth of Jesus is about answering the most critical existential questions of life. I have encountered and answered these questions in the following ways. Who am I? A person of infinite value and worth. Not because I say it is so but because Another has declared it. Why am I here? To give and receive love and to bring value and communicate esteem to others. What is my purpose and contribution? To encourage others to lead well, to live authentically, and to leave an imprint on the world that is redemptive and restorative.

May your blessings as well as your losses make you stronger, clearer, and more compassionate. Perhaps the One who comes to us in this season will open our mind and heart to the power of both love and suffering.

“For he is our childhood’s pattern, day by day like us he grew,
He was little, weak and helpless, tears and smiles like us he knew:
And he feeleth for our sadness, and he shareth in our gladness.”

From “Once in Royal David’s City” arr. Jeffrey Smith (b. 1960)

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