The Christian Post | Discovering the ‘Why’ in our lives

Paddy Kelly grew up surrounded by music. The tenth child in an American family living in Ireland, he joined his older siblings’ band, the Kelly Family, at a young age. When he was fifteen, he wrote a song that propelled the family to stardom, and the group became a global sensation. With money and fame came great opportunities, such as singing in stadiums to 250,000 screaming fans.

In time, Paddy moved into a seventeenth-century castle. He traveled by private plane and helicopter. His family was near him in his pursuits, and he was never far from their love. Yet something strange happened. Paddy felt empty, lost. The higher he rose the lower he felt.

He asked himself a haunting question: “If all this doesn’t make me happy, then what is the sense of life. Why do I exist?” He eventually retired to a monastery in France seeking answers.

Joseph Schooling is one of the best swimmers in the world. His youthful face and friendly grin make him a crowd favorite — especially after he won Singapore’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in 2016. He’s one of a small group of people who breathe the rarified air of being the best in the world. But how does it feel to be a gold medalist? According to Schooling, there’s a “feeling of emptiness.” Schooling concedes he didn’t know how to respond to fame and pressure. “I should have taken more time away from the pool,” he said. “I had to change my mindset as I was no longer chasing, I was being chased. . . I needed to find my ‘why’ for what I was doing.”

Read more at Discovering the ‘Why’ in our lives.

This is an adaptation of Dr. Jeremiah’s latest book, “Forward.”

Dr. David Jeremiah is among the best known Christian leaders in the world. He serves as senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California and is the founder and host of Turning Point. Turning Point‘s 30-minute radio program is heard on more than 2,200 radio stations daily. A New York Times bestselling author and Gold Medallion winner, he has written more than fifty books.