The Meaning of Life

In comprehending the meaning of life one could get lost by just dwelling on the end result. Consider first what things bring meaning to life and how we get there. It is much easier.
I picked this up from a question and answer session following a Ravi Zacharias lecture. He had lectured on pluralization, secularization, and privatization. The series had to do with how we got from of God fearing unified society to the empty, divided, and depraved one we have today.
On his topic of pluralization he argued that, since in Post Modernist society, pluralization has come to mean and equality of ideas with no way to test for truth, the end result is a loss of meaning!
This prompted a student to stand during the question and answer period and ask." since post modernist pluralization resulted in a loss of meaning, what was the meaning of life"?
Ravi answered by stating what brought meaning to ones life. They were WONDER, LOVE, TRUTH, and SECURITY Now lets unwrap these simple answers and see where it is that each on eventually is fulfilled and yields meaning.

Wonder

Wonder is euphoria of excitement, awe, discovery, learning, and revelation. It is the primary driver in a humans early years. As wonder is realized, it takes greater and greater experiences to stimulate an episode of wonder,enchantment.
An infant might be awed by the music and turning of a mobile hanging over the crib. Eventually wonder wears off and the parent must find a new way to distract the infant from its discomfort. The parent may stick a rattle into the hand of the infant, and in a feisty cry the rattle is shaken. The child hears this new sound and begins the realization the it is in control of making the sound.
Next comes the Fisher Price activity station with a beep, a ratcheting sound, a squeak, and a bell. As the child grows and there are dogs and frogs, balloons and baboons, planes and trains to be taken in. Not satisfied the growing little person wants to know how each of them works!
Extreme sports, the latest special effects movie, the newest euphoria producing drug, and fads are all the result of our quest for wonder. It can become a dangerous, and even deadly quest, if there is no moral compass applied in the chase.
The person who gets off on the tangent of fulfilling excitement through drug may start of with a cigarette or a beer, but the need for greater stimulus leads them down a path of addiction and slavery. Eric Clapton in his song, "Cocaine" included these words about that first euphoric high: "just remember this fact, you can't get it back"!
A lost soul finding wonder in sexual passion will travel down the road to perversion and fetish.
We never completely out live the need for wonder. In fact, it is the wonder filled need to learn, that drives our discoveries into the next 3 topics. Eventually, however, there is very little in the created universe that is shocking and awe inspiring enough to thrill.
I remember Steven Hawking narrating a program on physics. In describing a Black Hole, he began to turn the mathematics into a picture of what it would all look like. He had to admit that the math model broke down at the bottom of the black hole. To know for sure its shape would be, "to know the mind of God". Ultimately in the human learning experience, when you seem to have done it all, only God is big enough to still inspire wonder, excitement, awe, discovery, learning, and new revelation!.
It seems that this is true of every endeavor of serious study. When you have torn apart every aspect of a subject you find that God is at the bottom of it all.

Love

The quest for love starts as early as infancy. The child cries not because it is hungry, or in pain, but because it just wants to be held, and feel loved. The drive for finding love does not really kick in gear until the teens and twenties and is dominant into the 30's.

There are 4 kinds of love: four Greek words for "love" in the New Testament.
Eros: "is passionate love, with sensual sexual, desire and longing".
Philia: "...means friendship, a dispassionate virtuous love".
Agapē: "...self-sacrificing, giving love to all... divine love or the love of God
Storge: "...natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring".
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_four_greek_words_for_love_and_their_meanings
Whether or not you agree with the Bible as God's word, you probably don't argue with the title "the Book of Love". If you give it some contemplative thought you will agree with these 4 very different loves. The individual looking for love is seeking fulfillment in all four categories.

Erotic love is generally not the first kind that we learn. I think that there is a reason for that. If we did not first learn friendship love (philia), then our Eros love would be relegated to rape and prostitution. Erotic passion can be completely selfish and mechanical. Such love would leave both participants empty, without joy, or fulfillment. Passion with a friend is far better and more enJOYable.

We learn friendship love even before elementary school. The give and take, sharing, and caring is fundamental for human development. We finally “get it” when the day comes that we realize there is joy in giving a gift to others.
The formation of a cities and countries, is the out working of friendship love. We make a pact of friendship to create an atmosphere where we can live, work, love, have families, and grow with those of like desire. We join together in a pact of mutual protection, raise armies and build defenses for mutual protection. In the nuclear age people are trying to create a unified world. It is a desperate attempt to stave off self annihilation.
Friendship is more than just protection though. We also need these friends to help keep us in line, sort out answers to problem, shoulder some of our burdens. The warmth of a smile or hug is both contagious and encouraging. We make friends because we need each other!
All of this is set up to care for our basic needs in life. It is a foundation from which base our quest for Meaning. Not much else takes center stage in our minds until food, water, and shelter have been set up.

Agape love is the highest form of love. Agape love is a spiritual heart felt love that is above self interest and cannot be destroyed. Once you have given this love to someone you cannot take it back. It will tug or tear at your heart but it cannot be forgotten. It is binding. It cannot be explained in Darwinist terms. It cause the strongest to sacrifice themselves for the weakest! NO ONE is happy or complete without giving and receiving this kind of love! It is a most important part of a MEANINGFUL life.
The Apostle Paul in the letter to the Church at Corinth perfectly described and listed the laws of this kind of love.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1Co 14:4-8)

There is NO greater, or perfectly executed example of, Agape love than that of God, who left heaven, entered time, put aside his power and authority, and gave up his life, willingly, on the excruciating and humiliating cross, to ransom humanity. Once again the quest for meaning, through love, finds its ultimate in GOD. In fact what you even think about Agape love shows what you think about God.

What passes as love or a loving act brings up the questions of MORALITY and ORIGIN. If the Theory of Evolution is based on survival of the fittest, then what is the PURPOSE of a love that causes the strongest to sacrifice themselves to protect the weakest? It takes no love whatsoever to make offspring it does however take loving sacrifice to nurture them to adulthood. Finally there is always the question of DESTINY in love. The couple in a relationship ask. "where is this 'love' relationship going? Will it last? Is it real? All responses to the above questions are shaped by the respondent's view of God!

The Bible says, "...God is Love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God"(1John 4:16). If God is Love then it follows that, love comes when God gives a part of himself, to another, as a gift. (If, it is not a free gift then, it is not love.)
The one who receives God's gift of love must now decide what to do with it. Here are the options:

1) Dwell in it, enjoy it, and give it back to God (love God). The result here is the love multiplied and sent back from God. Thus a relationship is established with God. To succumb to love is to die to self and be made alive in Christ.

2) Give the love to another person. The result here is that, when the cup is poured out, it is refilled by God, with the same measure that it was given out. The more you give the more you get. The new receiver of the love must now also decide what to do with the love that was given to them, because, "Love continueth"(never fails, never stops, 1 Corinthians 13.) They might return it to the giver and a relationship is established.

3) Taint the love with selfishness and use it to enslave another for selfish purposes. This person perverts love, abuses it, and tries to keep it manageable, it is the same way they think of God. They want a humanized, manufactured, manageable God. In this case the love grows cold. "In the last days, do to increased wickedness, the love of many will grow cold.(Matt 24:12)

4) Reject the love, deny its author, and call it a genetic weakness. This person sees love as purely chemistry and hormones. To him there is no God we evolved from a bath of chemicals. This person runs from love so as not to give up self on the throne of their heart. Sometimes this person rejects the love because of feelings of guilt and unworthiness The result is death of the spirit, leading to death of the wretched soul, and finally merciful death of the depleted body.

In each case; what a person does about Love is what they believe about God, and influences their answering of the other four big questions of life.
George Herbert understood that Love was a drawing card from God to pull humanity closer to himself when he wrote "Love bade me welcome"

Love Bade Me Welcome

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.

"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.

-- George Herbert

Truth

Post Modernist thought says that , “everything is relative, there is no such thing as truth or absolute”. If that is true then the statement is also untrue. The statement obliterates and disqualifies itself. One has to wonder how it ever got taken seriously.
I can see where such a thought might be a good frame of reference for an attorney. It would free the lawyer from the inhibitions that would prevent him from doing everything possible for his client. It could never be a valid philosophy for life, however.
A lie is cruel. The purpose of a cruelty is to enslave. The post modernist not only puts the lie into the soul of humanity, but also takes away the possibility discovering the lie. The enslavement becomes permanent! The cruelty is absolute!
Each and every man, in a desire for freedom, embarks on a quest for truth!

As part of the search for truth we must all answer for ourselves the questions of origin, morality, purpose, and destiny. Where did human life originate from. What is right? What is wrong? What is life’s purpose? What happens to me after life?
The search for truth and an absolute reality becomes a dominant drive in the ages 30 to 50. It seems to really start during the rebellious adolescent stage though. During that rebellious stage we throw off all the morals, values, and teachings that were given to us by adults. We then begin to test for ourselves what is truth and worth keeping. It is a dangerous time. If, the methods of testing for truth are not sound, the result can be death, insanity, enslavement, or incarceration. We can become lost, in soulish anarchy, never to be found.
One may start by asking , “are there any absolutes”? “Are there any moral absolutes”? The answers become frames of reference for establishing a personal philosophy and world view. Those asnwers become our personal government. As we divide truth from fiction, for ourselves, we pick these up and make them permanently our own.
If you examine humanity’s cumulative collective union of truth, you will find universal agreement on some fundamental truths regardless of teaching, social status, culture, or upbringing. These are called Moral Absolutes. There are some who would like to deny that Moral Absolutes exist. They want to deny it because, if Moral Absolutes exist then, it means there was a Moral Law giver that put it into the conscience of every person. Either Moral Absolutes exist, and God exists, or no Moral Absolutes exist and God does not exist!
Now if you decide there are Moral Absolutes and God exists then you have begun to answer the question of origin and purpose. If you deny Moral Absolutes then you have some more questions to answer.
Even those that deny the existence of Moral Absolutes will point a figure at another and angrily proclaim them to be a liar. They will balk at saying, “murder is O.K. for personal gain.” They will call the police when they have been robbed. (for what if not to exact punishment, restitution, and stop the “crime”) Even atheists are upset to learn that their spouse or lover has been sexually violated by another etc.etc.
Ultimately there will neither be peace on Earth or in a man’s heart outside of a moral law equal to the 10 commandments given to Moses by God.
Let me illustrate this with the life of Martin Luther the Reformer.
Luther was in the middle of his own quest for truth when Rome began selling Indulgences to raise money for cathedral building. In effect this was selling the Right to do what was wrong. Luther had subjected himself to various kinds of self flagellation in a futile attempt to reconcile himself to God. He said, “though I subjected myself to wakings, freezings, and fasting, I could not reconcile myself to my baptism”. He knew deep from within that he had not yet discovered truth. The fire to find it exploded at the careless treatment of morality by Rome. When he nailed the “95 thesis” to the Wittenberg door it was a challenge to other professors to debate the questions. It was an effort to collectively come to some truth.
Later when he rediscovered, “salvation by grace through faith“, he knew in his heart that it was truth. No one could ever tell him differently again. No one could ever again enslave him with “salvation by works”.
God was the creator of reality and truth. Any altering of the reality is a lie and an attempt to enslave. Jesus said, “ I am the way, the truth, and the life…” He was either a liar, a lunatic, or creator God. Each and every human must put this statement to test.
Once again the search for meaning ends at God!

Security

The drive for security takes center stage later in life, 50’s to 70’s. This is the need to know that as our body weakens, we will be safe and cared for. It is also the need to feel secure in our love. Will those we love be safe and secure? Have we saved enough for retirement? Is our home, neighborhood, and nation safe? Have we made good relationships with others or will we age and die alone? Are we secure in our belief about what is truth? Have we made the right decisions? We want to know that our life HAS meaning. Can we sleep at night with our expectation of destiny?
We want to know that as we give up control, or as we loose control, that everything will be alright, that all is not lost. Can we sleep at night with destiny we have carved out? As we fall backwards, from the stage of life, into the mosh pit of the grave, can we trust the arms extended to catch us? Can we “go calmly into the night “ with our expectation of destiny?



If you say there is no God then you are saying there is no meaning. If there is no meaning then there is no purpose to life. If there is no purpose then, as Sartre said, “why not commit suicide”? Jesus said. “ I am the way, the truth, and the life…” ( John 14:6) He backed it up with his own resurrection and made us this promise of security: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life( John 3:16).
Paul wrote: “ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.” (1 Co 3:10-13)

It sounds like a better way to go to me! Again we find meaning for life in God!
There is nothing that can ultimately bring security, at the end of your days, like God! You can spend a life of restless nights, in a quest for meaning, and end up at God, or go through life with God, and have a life full of meaning!
To quote Ravi, meaning comes to your life when you can, "combine a sense of wonder, under girded by truth, experience the richness of love, with the knowledge of security".
I will add that only God is great enough to establish that, and only in a relationship with him can it be obtained securely!

“ Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil."((ECC 12:13&14)


For those of you who already have put you trust in Jesus Christ and the Bible, let me give you some Biblical examples that support this “Meaning of Life” idea I have written. Each of these examples went through the same stages and principles.

John the Apostle

The New Testament account of John Shows that he saw the miracles of Jesus This was awe and wonder. He was being taught who Jesus was. (Matt 8:14,15, Mark 5:37, Luke 5:10, Matt 17:1, Rev 1:1 -22:21)
He had a deep friendship love with Jesus (John 13:23-26, John 21:20) Knew family love (John 19:26)
Came to know it all as the truth after the resurrection ( John 21, 1 John 1:1-8)
He was secure in his destiny (1John 5:10-12)


John the Baptist

John was in awe at the presence of Jesus before they were both born! (Luke 1:39-45) Awed at Jesus’ baptism (Luke 3: 21&22)
Knew the truth of Jesus (Matt 3:11,12 , John 1:6-8)
John questioned his security in the truth of Jesus (Matt 11:2-6)

Israel

The Children of Israel were brought out of Egypt with much awe and wonder. The plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the Pillar of Fire. And all of the miracles in the 40 years of wondering. (Ex chap 1-Jos chap 1).
During this time they were given truth (Ex 20:3-17, Ex 28). As they entered the promised land the learned the importance of the responsibility of community. (Jos chap 7). Throughout their history God showed them his love, even during times of devastation and discipline. (Isaiah, Jeremiah Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, MT 23:37 and others. Just pick a page!) You can’t forget the Song of Solomon!
Israel’s security is garunteed forever but they knew times when their security was in jeopardy for disobeying.

The Church

The Church also had it beginning in awe and miracles. I’d have to begin with the resurrection of Christ, but then there is the whole book of Acts. This is the Churches infancy of awe and wonder driven growth. As the New Testament proceeds love of all men, each other as a family, and of the savior is taught. The learning of the Epistles becomes the entire message of truth. Security is promised in eternal life and the Church is established as the Bride of Christ to reign forever and ever (Rev 22: 1-6).