The Purpose of Life Is To Craft a Noble Character

Don’t let simple sayings fool you, they’re never easy

Two choices stood before him.

His wife lay near the brink of death. Years of minimizing her mounting health problems led to systemic disease, ravaging inflammation, and horrible, painful breathing. He could let her solve this problem on her own; it was her problem, anyway. Or he could join in her terrible struggle and serve as her loving, devoted assistant. Each choice carried a dire cost.

Brushing her problems aside meant the way of the coward; escaping her nighttime moans of pain, fleeing to another room in the house, flying to another place in his mind to numb the anguish of not helping.

Joining her meant the way of courage, it meant aiming for character noble enough to do the right thing; sharing her intolerable burden, exercising patience in the face of the unknown, conserving stamina for the endless march, exchanging the luxury of doubt for undaunted faith in success.

Either way he chose would matter, and it would matter a lot.

What is noble character?

Everybody recognizes good character when they see it, but it’s hard to describe precisely because everyone has their own unique definition. There are common patterns though, despite the infinity of personal examples. Genuinely noble people — those with not just good but magnificent character — orient their life around the same kinds of values:

“. . . loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace.” — The Urantia Book, 193:2.2 (2054.3)

For people who ultimately come to a place of humble service, those who are brave but not rash, virtuous but not vain, sincere but not harsh, these values become their internal guide. With this compass, and through the yearslong practice of intentional living, honest souls earn enduring qualities that cannot be given.

This is a noble character.

How is character connected to the purpose of life?

Evolution gives us a clue to this riddle. Everything in our world grows and changes. It’s easy to think evolution applies only to the physical and biological, but if we look closely we’ll see it applies to much more. The core concepts of evolution also operate in the intellectual realm and even the domain of spirit.

Like biology, our thinking evolves, both on a personal and societal level. To see proof of this, look no further than the ever-present cell phone. These tiny, indispensable wonders embody the evolutionary ideas of variation, heredity, and environmental fitness.

Hundreds of millions of people have contributed to the development of cell phones, from the visionaries that dream up new features to the engineers who perfect those features to the customers and their feedback. This little device, and the intellectual ecosystem that sustains it, serves as a perfect demonstration of how our collective thinking on a particular subject evolves over time.

Evolution on the spirit level

Just as evolution works in biology and the mind, it also works on the level of the spirit, or character.

In the layers of personal development, character is at the top. Healthy character depends on the stability of the mind below it and a healthy body below that: dysfunction at the lower levels inevitably disorders what’s above.

Not only does emerging character depend on the levels below it, but also on time. The physical and intellectual require time to develop in order to support the spirit, and this kind of growth is always a step-wise, organic process.

In each phase of life, we are evolving toward the next, preparing for bigger opportunities and heavier responsibilities. Childhood prepares us for adolescence, preparing us for adulthood, preparing us for mid-life, and so on. Across the span of our lives, our character evolves from pure potential (babies) to complete actualization (old age). It’s the journey from innocence to wisdom.

Character as the pinnacle of achievement

Developing a character dominated by wisdom and love is the greatest achievement of life. If we want to aim for this goal, we can do it best by embracing and living out the highest ideals of spiritual values we can conceive, despite our limitations and constraints.

This kind of character brings the greatest possible value to any situation. We deal with ourselves better and with others better. No matter the pressure of the moment or the stress life inevitably brings, character enables us to interact with everyone and everything on the basis of love. Loving engagement with others — servant mindfulness — is the best entry point into the cycle of love, and love is the most noble and magnificent use of personal power.

Simply put, improving ourselves — our character, our spirit, our soul — represents the most valuable purpose we could ever dare move toward.

Conclusion

Remember the husband and wife back at the beginning of this story? The thought that there were two choices was just a fantasy conjured up by the shadow self. In reality, there was only ever one choice.

I know. I was that husband.

Contrary to what Disney, Hollywood, and Instagram would have you believe, the path leading to a better you isn’t always a heroic adventure with a shiny, happy hereafter just waiting over the rainbow.

Sometimes you don’t get a choice about whether to do it or not. Sometimes it terrifies you utterly and assaults your soul while you frantically, furiously scramble to save that which sustains your very being.

In the real world, the purpose of life isn’t easy, only worth it.

And the purpose is forever constant; the slow but sure crafting of magnificent character.

Both this article and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Chelsea Mandler MAT. With steadfast courage and unflagging stamina she served as my mentor-editor and transformed a coarse, meandering idea into coherent, polished composition. Thank you thank you Chelsea!