Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” is a powerful book that every Christian, young or old, should read. Here we offer a quote from Winkie Pratney that analyzes part of what Frankl’s book is about:
“Victor Frankl was a great Viennese psychologist captured by the Nazis during World War II. He was thrown with thousands of others into a terrible concentration camp. Often they were marched out in long lines to be randomly murdered. He saw most of his own friends and relatives die in gas chambers. You never knew from day to day when your time had come. Death came by chance, the right line or the left, or by the whim of a bored guard. Many were starved, gassed and shot, others just got wasted by sickness. But many more died with little wrong with them physically. They just seemed to give up hope after a while, and a short time later were gone. Yet others, with far greater physical suffering somehow held on. Short of physical weakness, sickness or execution, they determined to stay alive until they were freed.
And they did. Frankl watched, day after day. Finally, at much cost, he learned from them and his own terrible situation a great secret. He wrote it in a little book called Mans Search For Meaning. It became an international best-seller after the war. How did he survive the horrors of a concentration camp? What made the difference between those who mentally and emotionally fell apart under the relentless terror and those who somehow found the ability to survive? Frankl found the secret of life in all that death. What was Frankl’s discovery? He said that mental (and emotional, physical and spiritual) health never comes without tension or stress. Again that is the very opposite of what most people think or say today. We all want “balance” in our lives. We all want to reach some ideal state where there is no challenge or pressure. We all look for a situation where we “have arrived” and no longer need to do anything. We all seek peace. We all take it as a maxim: “Nobody’s perfect.” And there we stop. We want health without challenge or conflict. We want to be strong but we want it to be easy, fun and risk-free.
Yet true health, true peace, true worth always involves the EXACT OPPOSITE. Those that died in the camp outside of physical failure died of lost dreams. Those that lived set a goal to be out of that camp by a certain time if they were not killed first. Living by that goal they survived incredible pressure. If that time came and they still were not free, they either set a NEW GOAL, or within a few days just laid down and died. Constant challenge made the difference between life and death. Living without a goal is death about to arrive. What we need, said Frankl is not “a frictionless, tensionless state without challenge or pressure” but a goal greater than ourselves, something continually worthy of our highest commitment. You cannot live without something to give yourself to that is greater than yourself.”
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Absolutely concur with exactly what you stated. Your explanation was undoubtedly the simplest to understand. I usually get irked any time people talk about matters that these people plainly do not know about. You managed to hit the nail on the head and explained everything without problem. Perhaps, folks can take a sign. Will likely be back again to acquire a great deal more. Thanks
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I understand just what you mean , life today is astonishingly different then it was back in the old days . I mean our parents didn’t concern themselves with this , modern technology makes a lot of things possible . You know I am just old fashioned , but I recall when a hard days work was the norm . People were honest , you could trust if your kids were outside by themselves they were safe , and goods weren’t as costly. I suppose prices are always going to go up , but you know I don’t know why why we can’t go back to the days when neighbors really cared for one another and actually knew what their neighbors names were . Recon that is history, but you know its a great day to be alive , I reckon we ott to just keep on keeping on.
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That’s interesting. I’m from Birmingham and see the same thing. Anyway, I’ll be back before too long Bob Perry, Work New York, 65 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007
Greetings from Swansea! I found that extremely informative. Thanks for the post. I will be back to look for more information next week. Bob Perry, Work New York, 65 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007