We are purpose seekers. I wonder have you noticed that? We are always looking for meaning. We try and discern the reason things happen to us. The more important the event, the more life threatening it is the more we ask, why.
Why did I get that diagnosis?
What's the purpose of these exam results now of all times?
Is there a reason my family are falling apart?
Why does this virus affect my family and not theirs?
Why, Why, Why, is the cry of our hearts. This is especially so when our life and happiness are under threat.
But we don't just look for meaning in the things that happen to us, we also try and create meaning and purpose for our lives.
Confession: I read obituaries. I find them fascinating. I'm drawn, not to the sadness of loss which is real, but to the many ways people have sought purpose for their life. Obituaries are usually written by the family and are an attempt to sum up the person's life. Through them you get a glimpse of what they lived for. "they were a real tractor man" "She was a loving mother" .
They must be difficult to write. How can you possibly describe the wonder of a loved one in a few short paragraphs. Yet it forces you to exclude all the unnecessary stuff and focus on what really made them tick, what really defined them. Obituaries are a real window into the person's life and where they sought their purpose. What would your loved ones need to include in summing up your life? Maybe a morbid question but the answer will give us insight into where we seek our purpose and significance. So it's a question worth asking.
You see, obituaries remind us that we all live for something.
The bible book Ecclesiastes is written by someone who is called the teacher. He spent his life looked for purpose in many things. In his quest for significance he throws himself wholeheartedly into studying, then into pleasure, then into building projects. All his activity reads as an exhausting and futile search. His conclusion was that all these things "are meaningless, a chasing after the wind."
These things are good and we should enjoy them but they are too fragile and fickle to live for. Yet we want to (maybe even need to) live for something. Why would that be? Why do we seek meaning in our life and try to create meaning through what we do? What explanation can be given for this hunger for significance. Can an explanation be found in a world that came into existence by chance? Is it reasonable for us to have this hunger for significance within that story? Or is CS Lewis right when he said,
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
The joy of the bible's message is that Jesus satisfies the hunger we have for meaning and purpose. So our smallest actions have eternal significance. And our greatest grief is not wasted but used for our good (though it can be hard to see at the time) and God's Glory.
We find in Jesus the very thing we are seeking (meaning) and are given what we exhaustively work for (significance).
Where do you find your purpose, meaning and significance? What or who defines your and my life? It's worth thinking about isn't it?