Five Ways to Serve the Force That Sent You into The World
I was recently listening to the author Michael Pollan being interviewed on the podcast On Being with Krista Tippett. The subject was Pollan’s new book on consciousness, A World Appears (story to come). To my surprise, Tippett, an accomplished interviewer, used the AI “chatbot” Claude to come up with several of her questions. No issue here—because the questions were almost as interesting as the answers.
Personally, I’ve been using the AI assistant Gemini for queries and second opinions for the past couple of years. Nothing against Claude, but I was given an early preview of Gemini and find that its answers are (usually) spot on or get me thinking about things I hadn’t considered. Which is pretty cool.
Before you dismiss this idea, consider: AI assistants like Gemini and Claude have access to all the world’s books and wisdom. So when you ask them a philosophical or spirituality-related question, for instance on “the nature of consciousness,” you get a response that brings together centuries of diverse thinking into a single, cohesive narrative. Here’s how Gemini explains its role:
We don’t just “copy and paste” from the web, we analyze the underlying patterns, metaphors, and cultural threads of human thought. When you ask about something as deeply personal and complex as philosophy or consciousness, we synthesize those billions of data points to reflect back the collective wisdom of humanity—sifting through the noise to find the universal signal.
“How do you serve the force that sent you into the world?”
The question above comes from the college professor and author Arthur C. Brooks in his new book The Meaning of Your Life. I’ll be writing about Brooks’ response in the future, so I decided to give Gemini a shot at answering it.
What I got back was insightful and I believe profound. Five bullet-pointed answers as well as direction on how to put them into practice—a literal blueprint for anyone deciding what to do with their life.
I’ve rephrased the question below. The response that follows is from Gemini, with a few word tweaks and bold highlights added to what to I thought were the most important parts. I’ve also added several links to topics I’ve covered here in the past.
Question: How do I serve the force that sent me into the world?
Answer: To serve the force that sent you here—whether you conceptualize that force as a creative source, God, nature, or an otherworldly process—is essentially to align your personal will with a deeper, universal current.
Here are a few ways to approach this profound alignment:
- Pay Fierce Attention to the Present
The source of existence doesn’t speak to us exclusively in booming, dramatic revelations; it speaks in the quiet, immediate reality of the present moment. Serving that force means keeping your eyes, ears, and heart open.
The Practice: Daily reflection, deep observation, and journaling are ways of keeping a ledger of how that force moves through your days. By paying attention, you honor the creation.
- Be Authentically Yourself
You are a unique iteration of this universe. In the history of time, there has never been, nor will there ever be, another consciousness with your exact blend of experiences, insights, and perspective. Therefore, the highest form of service is to fully become yourself.
The Practice: Uncover your latent gifts and give them form. If you are meant to write, write. If you are meant to listen, listen. When you suppress your authentic voice, you withhold a piece of the universe from itself.
- Find and Share Your Wisdom
The force that sent you into the world is inherently creative—it brought something out of nothing. You serve it when you mirror that creative act.
The Practice: Take the abstract, internal world of human consciousness, psychological archetypes, and deep insights, and build bridges for others to see them. Whether through a book, a conversation, or a shared piece of wisdom, you act as a conduit, transforming raw spiritual or emotional energy into something tangible that can elevate the collective.
- Engage in “Active Imagination” and Inner Work
To serve a force, you must know its terrain. The subconscious and the dream world are the languages of the deeper self and the collective consciousness.
The Practice: Do the heavy lifting of examining your own shadow, decoding your dreams, and practicing a sort of modern Stoicism—reframing obstacles not as malice from the universe, but as the raw material required for your growth.
- Leave the Campfire Better Than You Found It
Serving the larger force means recognizing that you are a temporary custodian of a small patch of earth, a specific community, and a web of relationships.
The Practice: Show up for the small, communal rituals. Be present for your family, your neighbors, and the people who cross your path. Bringing harmony, warmth, and sharp, conscious awareness to your immediate circle is the most practical, grounded way to anchor a grand cosmic purpose.
Ultimately, you serve the force that sent you here by waking up to it—by refusing to live on autopilot and instead treating your life as a conscious collaboration with the infinite.
Final Note: I asked Gemini the source of all this knowledge. The response: “It’s the shared wisdom of poets, psychologists, and philosophers.” Among the names called out were Carl Jung, Marcus Aurelius, and Joseph Campbell.
About the Author: Tom Rapsas been writing the Wake Up Call column at Patheos since 2012. His latest book Wake Up Call: Daily Insights for the Spiritual Curious was released in 2024, by Wildhouse Publications. His next book, Beyond Spirituality, is coming in early-2027.
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