Meaning
Why am I here? Does life have purpose? These are questions probed by philosophers, but they are also very personal, freighted with implications.
Someone with no good answer is more likely to succumb to the modern suicide epidemic. “Psychology Today” magazine reports that the suicide rate now exceeds highway fatalities, and is higher than it has been since 1950. A pointless life is unbearable and lonely.
Author Thomas Wolfe concluded that loneliness is inevitable. In his essay, “God’s Lonely Man,” he expressed a certain meaningless. “All this hideous doubt, despair, and dark confusion of the soul a lonely person must know, for he is united to no image save that which he creates himself. He has no faith in him except his own and often that faith deserts him leaving him shaken and filled with impotence. Then it seems to him that his life has come to nothing.”
Contributing to the problem is scientism, the belief that science can answer all questions. Zoology professor and Nobel Prize winner Peter Medawar warned young scientists about that. “I have in mind such questions as: “How did everything begin?” “What are we all here for?” “What is the point of living?” These questions become incoherent if you accept evolution as settled science. Why should you, a collection of molecules arranged by a meaningless, random process, expect to find transcendent meaning?
The Bible has answers that are coherent and reasonable. Its explanations correspond to what we observe and deduce. Scientists regularly observe evidence of design quite beyond the reach of Darwinism. We deduce that since nothing material causes itself, logic demands a First Cause, a Creator. So, to what end would God create your soul to reside in an earthly body? Abraham left hearth and home for unknown places because “he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10). Paul counted “all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8). These men lived with purpose!
John Piper summarizes that your purpose is to magnify God. He compares that to a telescope by which the unimaginably vast universe can become visible to the human eye. “You are on planet earth to put a telescope to the eye of the world. That’s why you exist. By your behavior, your parenting, the way you do your job, the way your worship, and the way you handle your life, everyone should read, ‘God is great.’ ”
A transformed life of faith reflects the greatness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Seek and know your Creator, Savior, and Counselor! You will find no higher meaning.
