Why: Discovering Your Essence Is Important for a Life of Meaning

By Carl Nafzger and Lis Thomson

In this latest book by Carl Nafzger, he shares the results of his lifelong quest to understand the true meaning of success and how to achieve it. Author of the popular book on training racehorses, Traits of a Winner, Carl was raised on a Texas ranch. He spent his early life on the rodeo circuit, quickly becoming one of America&rsqu

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kemmet Schreiben
• Release date: May 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781945464041

Book preview

PREFACE

I often tell people that I spent fifty-seven years writing this book. I was about fifteen when I started reading everything from the Bible to Steinbeck to Ayn Rand and a lot of other biographies that I hoped would help me figure out the meaning of life. Even after I became a professional bull rider, I read constantly while on the road traveling from rodeo to rodeo. This quest to understanding people and life started when, as a teenager, I looked around and saw so much hypocrisy in the world. The words and deeds of people didn’t match up, and I did not understand how people could claim to believe one way and act the opposite. I grew up in a Christian community and even within that community, so often the actions of people were counter to the teachings of the Bible. Who I saw around me were not people who seemed happy and at peace, but rather people who were dissatisfied and frustrated with life. That so many people in my own Christian community seemed discontented led me to reject Christianity as a path for success and happiness. Once I rejected the Bible as the blueprint for a happy and successful life, I began searching for the path to success in other religions and philosophies.

Eventually, I found my way back to Christianity after realizing that the Bible really does have the answer for how each of us can find fulfillment, but my understanding of Christianity came to be something other than what I was taught as a youth. Christianity, I believe, is very individualistic. God really does care about every single one of us in a separate and unique way, and He uses His words to send each of us the messages that we need to hear in order to find our individual path to success. What I mean by this is important for understanding what I wish to impart to readers of this book. The understanding that I get from reading God’s word in the Bible might not be the same as the understanding that anyone else gets from reading that same passage in the Bible. Two people reading one of Christ’s parables might each take away something different from that story. Why? Because we gain from God’s word what He knows we need from Him at that moment in our life. I do not believe that another person can tell you the exact meaning of a passage in the Bible. You must find in it the meaning for you. Some passages might not speak to you at all. Others might profoundly change your life. A Bible passage that had no meaning for you when you were twenty years old might have tons of meaning for you when you are sixty.

All of this became very clear to me in my own life as I aged. I could find no understanding of life in the words of Christ in my early twenties, but later in life, when I approached Christ’s words with an open mind, I found tremendous meaning that put my life on a course to success. What I mean by having an open mind is that I stopped letting others tell me what Christ was saying to me and I opened my heart and mind to Christ and let Him speak to me directly. This individualistic view of Christianity might be counter to establishment, but it is my view of Christianity that is central to what I have to say in this book. I found that God had much to say to me once I accepted that I mattered enough to Him that He would speak to me directly.

I have come to understand that God has given us love, but love will die if we do not give it back. This book is my way of giving back the love God gave to me. My hope is that by sharing what I have learned through God’s love, others will find their way back to God’s love as well. It is in the presence of God that people can finally feel the peace and contentment that is the real mark of success in life. What you must do is open your heart and mind to God and let Him speak to you and guide you through His words and through the events that happen around you. How I learned to hear His words and let the events He caused in my life to guide me is the story I wish to share in this book.

Father, I pray that I will write the teachings of Christ that You have shown me. Please send the Holy Spirit to guide me and give me strength and wisdom to write Christ’s teaching as I understand them and as they have applied to my life. Bless me to do Thy will, not mine. I ask this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Chapter 1

WE ARE MADE

TO CREATE

Someone once asked me back in the 1990s what made me a success. I thought about it and at the time I didn’t know the answer. In a way, it was the wrong question, because what the person really wanted to know was how my training techniques led to a Kentucky Derby win. The answer then and now is—I don’t know. A better question might be simply—why did I win the Kentucky Derby? But the answer is still—I don’t know. Wondering why you even bought this book? Don’t worry, I do have