Skip to main content

The Meaning of Life

You know, people have been seeking and selling the meaning of life for probably as long as humanity has existed. Why are we here? What is our purpose?

People have written countless books--many of which you can find in the self-help section of your local bookstore--about why humans are here and how to discover your unique purpose and meaning. Men and women often search for meaning in many places, usually in their jobs, their children, or their relationship with others.

We are here to help others. We are here to give sacrificially. We are here to make the world a better place. We are here to leave a legacy. We are here to accomplish something... I have heard answers that range from "Life is a test for what you can handle in Heaven" to "We are here to fulfill a unique purpose designed for us by Yahweh and to bring Him glory in a way that only we can." The first one is, respectfully, preposterous, and the second one falls short of the greater Truth.

Ultimately, no one can tell you the meaning of your life except for Yahweh. But I think in that I've found the point. Life is about relating to Him in every possible way. Out of that comes everything else: expression, activity, love for others, identity, and creation itself.

It is when this "everything else" becomes a distraction from the primary relationship that man finds life meaningless. And men who find life meaningless turn to the numbing agents that are currently destroying society: drugs, alcohol, and reckless life choices. People who engage in these activities fear that life has no meaning because they have lost hope and sight of this primary relationship all together.

I think it starts slowly, like the parable of the four soils. At first, we get hung up on our responsibilities. We forget to relate to Yahweh because we have to accomplish x, y, and z. We have to keep all the plates spinning, so to speak. We lose sight of Yahweh because we are focused on the plates, and we focus on the plates because we fear that they will fall and shatter. As if the plates are the important thing.

If we focus on the plates for too long, eventually we will experience their shattering, and we will wonder why we bother trying to keep the plates spinning when they're just going to break anyway. But we were never meant to hold the plates up on their spinning poles. Then, once enough tragedies have befallen us and enough shattering has been done, we shatter ourselves, ultimately succumbing to death.

This is not an inevitable path, however. Stopping this descent is as easy as remembering our relationship with Yahweh. Suddenly, the plates don't matter as much. Suddenly, we are okay if they shatter and break. And they shatter and break less often because they are held up not by our own efforts, but by the relationship that Yahweh and we share together.

I would like to insert a caveat here, lest you think I am telling you to have a Sabbath, pray more often, read the Bible, or go to church. These are also plates--activities that may or may not come out of the relationship that you have with Yahweh, depending on what He tells you for your life. I would never presume to say.

I'm simply writing out of my own experience, my life, my relationship with Yahweh.

After all, the meaning of life is Life itself, and you can partake of that Tree, or you can partake of the one that only talks about what you do (good) and do not (evil) need to do.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why Creation Isn't Waiting For You to Rule and Reign

There's this idea that creation is waiting for the sons of God to take their places and make the world what it needs to be, this idea that some day out there Yahweh will come back and take us to Heaven and reign from His Throne. Once we remember sovereignty and that we are One with Yahweh, we realize that we are the ones sitting on this throne with Yahweh. We also need to remember that time and eternity are One. Time is the instrument of Our growth, and We actually use it to grow eternity. Once we realize these two things, we can see that We are sovereign in our own lives and ruling and reigning from this throne right now. The instrument of Our dominion is Our choices. This is what Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 3 where he talks about how we each choose what materials to build our lives with. Some choose jewels, some choose clay. I, as the sovereign in my own life, get to decide what materials to build my life with. However, I cannot judge another's life. As each of u...

Pie

Imagine that all the love, affection, and resources (time, finances, emotional space, etc.) that each of us has is a pie. This pie may be larger or smaller depending on capacity and circumstances in a person’s life. Now, in order to be healthy and satisfied, each person must constantly be consuming an entire pie. But, after eating a single slice of our own pie, the rest of our pie cannot satisfy us or give us any nutritional value. What are we to do? We must give ourselves the first slice of our pie. This is self-love or self-care. That first slice imbues all of the other slices of our pie with nutritional value. But, after we have consumed the first slice of our own pie, the rest of our pie will give us nothing if we eat it ourselves. We must give the other slices of our pie to other people. Still, we must consume a whole pie to be satisfied, so others must give to us as well. In a healthy, functioning society and group, it would look like this: each of us eats our own first slice...

Rocks vs. Sand: Discerning Reality from Illusion

I keep saying that Yahweh is all that there is and that anything that isn't of Him isn't Real. You may well wonder, as I did, why we keep seeing things that aren't Real. Sickness, death, poverty, sadness... none of these are in line with Yahweh's order or character, so why do we perceive them? Some might say that we live in a fallen world, but did not Yahshua finish everything on the cross? (John 19:30). If we are to believe Him that it truly is finished, then we can return to His Reality right now. We do not have to wait until we die to go to Heaven. Indeed, we do not even have to die. (1 Corinthians 15:51, John 8:51, John 3:16, etc.)  If you just looked up those verses and rationalized away that they are talking about not dying after you die and go to Heaven (does that really make sense, though?), ask Holy Spirit to show you His Reality and judge it for yourself. I, personally, cannot now understand why Yahshua would say that anyone who keeps His Word would ne...