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.
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.
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