A few days ago, I was having an after-church breakfast at a local restaurant with my lovely teenage granddaughter.
After we were seated, our friendly young waitress approached, took our food orders and then asked, “Can I answer any other questions?”
In a half-joking manner I blurted out, “Yes, what’s the meaning of life?” And surprisingly, she lit up and said, “You know I’ve been thinking a lot about that very question lately, how interesting.”
I asked if she would like to talk further and she seemed interested.
That conversation inspired this essay. So, what is the meaning of life?
Not What You Think
Of course, our first thoughts go to things like having a family, earning an education, getting a good job, making lots of money, owning a house, enjoying good health, etc.
And while there is nothing wrong with those things, they rise no higher than our all-too-brief visit to planet earth for 70 or 80 years. So, then what?
Someone has said, “He is a fool whose plans end at the grave.” In his brilliant book, Mere Christianity, author and theologian C.S. Lewis summed it up brilliantly:
“All that we call human history — money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery — (is) the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
So, is there a bigger picture, or is this all there is, as astronomer and planetary scientist Carl Sagan insisted?
Missing This
Two thousand years ago, someone infinitely more qualified to speak of such things made these counterintuitive claims, in Mark 8:35-37, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what could a person give in exchange for his soul?”
Jesus Christ was slightly restating our original question with, “What is the purpose of THIS life?”
He was saying this life is only the beginning of a much longer sojourn in our next and final life. And further, to miss the meaning of this life is to miss our entire purpose for existing.
“What is the purpose of THIS life?”
To forfeit one’s soul is the greatest tragedy possible. In the Book of Revelation, specifically Revelation 20:14-15, we read of the final destiny of all beings, spiritual and physical, who have missed their purpose in life:
“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
To have lived a full life on earth, achieving all that life has to offer, and yet miss your ultimate purpose of connecting with God is to miss the whole point of your existence.
Consequences of Avoiding God
Romans 1:18-20 states: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”
The greatest sin is willful suppression of truth because it ignores what is plainly in front of us. Look around. Ponder the stars at night, gaze deeply into a baby’s eye, study the human cell, consider DNA code.
It all speaks of an eternal Creator. To persistently deny this is to place yourself beyond excuse.
The Only Way Home
So how do I get on the right path? Again the words of Jesus in John 14:1-6:
“‘Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me … And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be. And you know the way where I am going.’
“Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going; how do we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
God has prepared an eternal home for those who choose to believe in Him and receive His Son Jesus as their Savior.
How About You?
Do you want to be a truly fulfilled person? Here is authentic fulfilment: becoming the kind of person God created you to be — a person who is “fully alive,” as the late Dallas Willard put it.
C.S. Lewis wisely observed, “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”
Interested?
4-1-1
Click here for a fascinating AI-generated podcast on this essay.