You Were Built for War and Placed in a Cubicle — The Truth About Your Restlessness

Well, hello there, my friend.

My name is Jonathan Doyle.

This is the Daily Podcast, and you are very welcome.

You are an honored guest in the metaphorical lobby of this podcast.

The doors are open.

You are welcome.

I'm pleased you're here.

I wanna be a blessing to you.

The title of today's message is You were built for war and placed in a cubicle.

Do you like that?

It's, it's interesting, isn't it?

You were built for war and placed in a cubicle.

I wanna suggest that there is a restlessness in the human condition

that in this current moment in history, we are medicating it, we are managing

it, we are diagnosing it as extremely problematic, and I would like to give

you a different filter and suggest what if some of the restlessness is this

energy that is meant to be externalized in our lives, that each of us listening

to this has a power, a capacity, a future, a destiny, an energy that is

meant to be deployed in addressing the great challenges of the human condition.

And those challenges can be as simple as a conversation with a

family member or changing geopolitics for the next two centuries.

All of us have got some role to play, and as far as I'm concerned,

it doesn't matter where we're placed.

It matters what we do with this incredible capacity and potential we have.

This is the essence of really everything that I'm trying to do at the moment.

I was journaling this recently going, "What is it… What, what do I really

want for people?" And my motto, as some of you know, is liberate people's potential.

Liberate people's potential.

My essential thesis is that most people are living in a small story.

They're, for complex reasons, they don't really think much about the possibility

that they could live a much bigger story.

And yes, that could be a bigger financial story, a bigger career

story, a bigger relational story.

There's, there's all these dimensions, whichever ones are significant for you.

But my sense is that so many people are living in a relatively small

story, and this energy that could be deployed is turned inward.

And I wonder if so much of the depression that so many people feel

is, as one writer put it, "The soul's protest at the size of the cage".

The soul's protest at the size of a cage.

I said to people in a conversation months ago that you think of the epidemic of

depression that so many people are dealing with, and I know there's complex reasons.

There's all sorts of historical reasons, trauma, experiences people have had.

I'm no one's judge.

I don't know everybody's story.

But I often said, you know… I, I heard a speaker once kind of frame it like

this, that if you took somebody like a young person dealing with depression and

you suddenly exported them to somewhere in the world that was dealing with,

like, famine or some- an earthquake or some really thing, and you just said

to them, "Right, we've gotta hustle.

We've gotta help all these people.

We've gotta do all this.

We've gotta, we've gotta distribute this and make this happen and help these

people and get these people over here," I am deeply convinced that You would see

a massive change in the person's mood.

I genuinely believe that.

It'd be fascinating to see if there's any sort of studies that have been

done on it, because I think one of the fastest ways out of the prison of

sadness and depression is to become interested in other people's problems.

Is it not true that so much of what can happen in something like depression

is it's very introspective, right?

And like you, I've experienced it.

I've experienced times in life where just there's this blah.

It's like this depressive season that you can go through.

Maybe it's linked to abuse or trauma or something that's happened to any of us.

But the energy is very internalized, isn't it?

That, that we, we don't think about this whole big world.

I get it.

I totally understand it.

But in that example that I gave about suddenly being transported where

people desperately need you, where they desperately need you to help

them, I d- I really am convinced that there's a shift because the

energy that's been internalized into sadness and introspection and grief

is kind of externalized into, "Okay, okay, what, what do people need?

Who needs me?" And I just wonder that if some of that restlessness,

that sadness, that this… 'Cause we're living, can we not agree, in

this mental health epidemic, right?

There's just so many things that are causing this, but I just wonder if

helping as many people as possible get back into a bigger story.

Now, maybe you're a psychologist listening to this and you're like,

"Jonathan, it's not as simple as this."

And look, I get it, okay?

I'm not just saying that we all magically just tomorrow just step out of these soul

cages and suddenly figure all this out.

But I'm just interested in the direction, because I've never

been happier than when I'm deeply engaged in other people's problems.

You know what, what… Last week we talked about that great quote from C.S.

Lewis about humility, where he said, "Humility isn't thinking less of yourself,

it's thinking of yourself less." Have you ever felt that when you're just so engaged

in somebody else's story or problem or joy that you get out of yourself?

You're like, you're just alive.

So I'm really curious about this, that as this title of this message

is You Were Built For War and Placed in a Cubicle, what's the war?

Well, for me, it's that there are so many people out there either who don't

believe in themselves or don't know that they could be in a bigger story, and I

just wanna help everybody I possibly can.

Like, that's what I wanna do.

And like I've said before, like, you could meet me on a plane, you

could meet me somewhere, and if you start talking about your problems,

I'm gonna be like so interested.

I'm gonna be like, "Wow. Okay. W- let's, let's talk about that."

I just naturally gravitate to that because what is that war?

The war is between light and dark.

We talked about that a couple episodes ago.

It's between this force in the cosmos that wants us to live, grow,

experience joy, rapture, beauty, create, innovate, develop, invent, and there's

this other force that's collapsing us back into sadness, withdrawal,

self-judgment, all these sorts of things.

Can, can we not agree, whatever your faith perspective, can, can we not

agree that's probably pretty true?

How do we know it's true?

Because when do you feel most alive?

When do you feel happiest?

It's when something beautiful is happening and you're energized and

you're serving and you're doing and you're moving forward with a plan and

something's happening in your life.

It's a great feeling.

And why can't we feel that more often?

Why can't we actually experience that more?

So- I just think we're made for this big story.

I think we're made for this, like, for helping each other.

We're built for war.

We're built to be in this great big battle of reality, but we get placed

in a cubicle, which means we what?

We sort of settle that this is how reality is.

I really wanna suggest to you that if you start to get really interested

in other people's problems and helping them solve them, I think

you are gonna notice your life will take on a slightly different tint.

It will have a different feel about it.

Now, not all the time.

Don't be a doormat.

Don't kind of just externalize all your, you know, internal sorrow

out into the world and, and just forget about your own problems.

But there's just something that seems to be a blessing to us when we take

that restlessness, that internalized focus, and take it out into the world.

So have you ever felt that?

Uh, do you feel it now when you look at your life?

Do you feel trapped?

Well, if you wanna walk out of these soul cages, I think the way

we do it is, is who needs you?

There's a simple question.

Who needs you?

Who needs you?

Who could you bless?

Who could you encourage?

Who could you send a message to when you get off this podcast and just

say, "Hey, I was thinking about you.

I just wanna say I think you're awesome, and I'm praying for you, and let's have

a coffee and let's see, let's catch up"?

Just, just, just do something.

Just do something to reach deeply into other people's reality,

'cause that's where the magic is.

All right, that's all I'm gonna say today.

I'll keep this one pretty short.

You were built for war.

You were built for this big, dramatic, cosmic story.

Do you know that?

Like, God, I don't know, I don't wanna start a whole 'nother podcast

here, but this is a cosmic battle.

This is a great big battle between light and dark and sorrow and joy

and, and grief and possibility, and you're right smack in the middle of it.

You've just, you've just forgotten that's what it is, and you think

it's just a mediocre suburban life.

It's not that.

That's not the story you're in.

You're in a much bigger story.

So go serve somebody.

Go bless somebody.

Go get interested in somebody.

And please come and say hi on Instagram @jdoylespeaks, one word.

YouTube, Jonathan Doyle Speaks.

Website, jonathandoyle.co.

Please subscribe to the podcast.

God bless you.

Go get yourself in the battle.

Go get y- Go get yourself in the bigger story.

My name's Jonathan Doyle.

This has been the daily podcast.

You and I are gonna talk again tomorrow.