I attended a vegan meeting today.
It's been a long time since I stepped into a social event out of my comfort zone (aka out of church). Not that I don't do well in socialising but I get extremely drained afterwards and honestly what's the point anyway.
But socialising today had a point - I needed contacts. So chit chatting it was then.
The experience was interesting. Disorienting, even. I could identify certain advocacy elements that are found in church as well. The leader and the followers, the outreach plans, the testimony and sharing sessions. I was new yet I knew exactly what they were doing; I was in the room, yet I felt as though I was outside of it all observing everything. At one point, I was afraid they would ask me to stay or rope me into the community (lol what we do in LG) but I didn't want to because...
Vegan practices are good but I don't want to commit to the lifestyle. Why go so far to conduct meetings and outreach session? Why attend activities and events at all? I can simply adopt bits and pieces of the vegan practices and live without all those commitment. Then i realised it's the same for Christianity. I felt, at that moment, how pre-believers/ non-committed Christians feel in the midst of us.
And the million dollar question: How do we convince them?
What would make me a full-fledged vegan convert?
I started to wonder why would people devote their time and effort advocating this lifestyle. I concluded that everyone needs meaning in life. We were not born as a cosmic freak accident and we know that - or need to know that - at the back of our minds. But not everyone turns to spirituality as a form of understanding the meaning of life. Therefore, people turn to other stuff like fighting for animal rights or promoting environmental welfare to make the world a better place. This means 2 things:
- Vegans derive meaning through contribution to the society/world.
- Even veganism, a seemingly altruistic lifestyle, is laced with the desire to satisfy one's soul.
I found myself thinking, if all advocacy groups function in a similar manner, then there's no REAL significance because it is ultimately motivated for the self. As such, there will always be problems in society. Because even if there isn't, people will create/find problems to solve in order to derive their sense of purpose. Imagine if everything was perfect. The world wouldn't need us. Our existence on earth will cease to matter. So why live?
The thing is, everyone is seeking ways to fill their lives. But what we really want from it is to have a sense of purpose. And this can only be obtained if we see the value in the things we do.
Ultimately, it's all about seeing the value.
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