Now I know the job I most don't want to do.  I've been an acrophobic all my life, enjoying heights less than anyone I know.  Skyscraper window washing had been at the top of my "jobs to avoid" list, but now there's a new entry.

Today's New York Times tells us about Michel Fournier, the retired French Army officer who plans to fly a giant helium balloon 25 miles above Earth and parachute down.  If successful, he'll fall longer, farther, and faster than anyone in history.  Yesterday he got ready for "The Great Leap," as he calls it, when his 650-foot-high balloon suddenly floated away and scrubbed the launch.  I'd take the hint if I were him.

Mr. Fournier has spent 20 years and nearly $20 million in pursuit of his dream.  He sold his house and most of his belongings, and has solicited funds from sponsors to finance his project.  I admire such single-hearted purpose, even if I think he's nuts.

For several mornings we've sought the true happiness which Jesus promises, coming today to the sixth Beatitude: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matthew 5:9).  Greek scholar Fritz Rienecker defines "heart" as "the center of the inner life of the person where all the spiritual forces and functions have their origin."  "Pure" means here to have integrity, to be consistent, to be of one mind.  So to be "pure in heart" is to have a single purpose to your life.  Kierkegaard was right: "purity of heart is to will one thing."  To choose to have a single life purpose.  Mr. Fournier would agree.

Not everyone believes you can.  Many think that life has no real purpose or meaning.  Philosopher Martin Heidegger says you're an actor on a stage, with no script, director, audience, past or future.  Courage is to face life as it is.  French philosopher and playwright Jean Paul Sartre titled his most famous play, No Exit, and his autobiography, Nausea.  In Existentialism and Human Emotions, he ended the chapter titled "The Hole" with these words: "Man is a useless passion."

"Postmodernism" says there's no absolute truth, which is itself an absolute truth claim.  Life has no real purpose, just what you make of it.  Life is chaotic, random dots produced by the coincidence of evolution and the chance occurrences of life.  You're here until you're not, and that's all there is to the story.

Does this chaotic world view describe your life this morning?  We can do better than this.  Why seek a single life purpose?  Let's continue tomorrow.

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