BP 211
Why am I here?
Many would say that this question is the most important one humans can ask while they live out their years on this planet. Have you ever asked it? Or like the singer and actor, Meat Loaf, do you prefer to avoid it and say, ““Who am I, why am I here? Forget the question, someone give me another beer.”
If you have not considered The Question—directly or indirectly—then you are skating on the thinnest ice imaginable. At this very moment, you are in immediate danger of never seeking the meaning of life but simply defaulting to meaningless existence—settling for being like a rock or a fallen, petrified tree. I think it was John Lennox who said that in today’s world we know so much about how things work, but we know little to nothing about meaning.
Do you know why you’re here? Let’s consider some comments from various individuals about this most important question.
“Without knowing who I am and why I’m here it is impossible to live. Yet I cannot know that and therefore I cannot live” ~ Leo Tolstoy
“If you think of this world as a place simply intended for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable; think of it as a place for training and correction and it’s not so bad” ~ C.S. Lewis
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves” ~ Alan Watts
‘And he [Jesus} told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry”’ ~ Luke 12:16ff.
“But God said to him [the rich man], ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” ~ Luke 12:20,21
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life” ~ Albert Camus
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind . . .” ~ Romans 12:1,2
“Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” ~ 1 Peter 2:9
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” ~ 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20
“Life is without meaning. You bring meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning” ~ Joseph Campbell
Certainly, discovering the meaning of life is critical for the non-believer who is currently drifting through life without a spiritual compass, living in nothingness, settling for nothingness, and moving inexorably toward eternal nothingness, i.e., separation from God. But what about the follower of Jesus? Why is it important for you to consider the meaning of your existence?
Believers need to very often consider, rehearse, be thankful for why they are on this terrestrial ball. Why? Because there is fierce opposition within you and outside of you that seeks to distract, steal, and destroy your sense of purpose and joy.
Real enemies exist that are actively striving to blunt or extinguish the purpose you have found as a believer in Christ. I know I can bump into the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints when I venture into this territory, but Scripture passages such as Matthew 24:12, 13 say, “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
All believers must fight against their love growing cold, against darkness stealing their purpose in Christ through the strongholds, arguments, and lofty opinions mentioned in 2 Corinthians 10:4,5.
So, what are a few examples of these opponents that exist to undo the anchor of meaning you have in Christ?
- Boredom, restlessness, searching for truth somewhere besides God’s word or for love elsewhere than God and His people
- Increasing tribulation that can accost believers in the form of hatred from unbelievers and even death as Matthew 24 mentions
- Deconstruction of faith fueled by desire for the things of the flesh, of the world (1 Peter 2:11)
- Listening to the seductive but godless voice of someone in today’s culture that you come to idealize on social media
- Suffering that screams to you that either God does not exist or that He does not care what happens to you
- Slow eroding of faith that may occur over forty years. Always remember that the race for the prize of the upward calling of Christ Jesus is not a sprint but a marathon. You must regularly eat and drink God’s sustaining word along the way to have the endurance to complete the race
- A lover who comes into your life who does not love Jesus but whom you learn to love even more than God Himself
- The dark and devious purpose of Satan which is always to separate you from God, others, and even your own self
- Slipping away from God’s people and sliding down toward the world of unbelief
- Unresolved anger toward a past human that gets transferred onto God who you then begin to distrust or hate or repel
- Regularly feeding the flesh dog within you instead of the Spirit dog (Galatians 5:16,17)
There are many other enemies that oppose holding onto your purpose in God, but the above are a few to consider.
I will conclude this post with the truth that the best defense is a good offense. Do I have that wrong? Not in this context. What I am saying is that the best way to defend against the erosion of finding your ultimate purpose in Christ is the positive habit of pursuing the presence of God.
Desire is hard-wired in us. If we don’t practice desiring and seeking Jesus, our desire will woo us to another love. Ultimately, we trust God to protect our hearts, but our part in working out our salvation is to positively pursue Jesus every day which habit will then draw our attention away from those things that war against our affections for Him.
The strong practice of cultivating affection for Jesus will automatically defend us against the love of other, lesser things that this world wants to distract us with.
If you have not entertained the purpose of your existence, begin this doing so immediately. Your (eternal) life depends on it. Those who seek, find.
If you have found the meaning of your existence in the person of Jesus who created you and loves you, remember that you are in a war. You will need to fight every day against the propaganda of the enemy that falls from the sky or rises up in the recesses of your heart.
Don’t fight alone. Your purpose is to practice the presence of Jesus the Christ and to practice the presence of your brothers and sisters who will have your back on the day the opponents mentioned above rise against you. The meaning of life is to love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.
Shun separation and run toward The Meaning of the Universe. The Meaning is a person. He has a name. His name is Jesus. Nothing else will satisfy your hunger for meaning in this world.
Give up all else to hold onto Him.
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” ~ Acts 4:13
“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” ~ Jeremiah 2:13
Don’t settle for what has no ultimate, forever meaning.
Drink from the well that springs up to eternal life!
