Perspective: The Meaning of Life

I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.


The Meaning of Life

Scripture:

So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:9-11

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ...

Philippians 3:7-8

Lead me to the cross
Where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees
Lord I lay me down
Rid me of myself
I belong to You
Oh lead me
Lead me to the cross

From "Lead Me to the Cross" by Brooke Fraser

We live in a society that constantly tells us what we want out of life. We are supposed to go to college so that we can get a white-collar job with an important-sounding title and a six-figure income. We are supposed to get married, have at least two children, and join a country club. We are supposed to have a big house with a picket fence, a large television, and two cars in the garage.

Even with all of the goals society sets for us, there is still an ever-present search for the meaning of life. Even people who are successful by worldly standards can still find themselves unhappy and unfulfilled. What is the point of success then?

King Solomon had everything a man could ever want. He had riches beyond imagination and more women than he could keep up with. He was the wisest man in the world at his time, and he was the king responsible for building the Temple of the Lord and turning Israel into a superpower. At some point, though, Solomon became disillusioned with life in general and fell into despair, despite all his wealth, fame, and accomplishments. Looking back on his life, he wrote the work we know as Ecclesiastes. In this work, he repeatedly muses that life is meaningless and that all work amounts to nothing but chasing the wind.

Why would a person who has "everything" feel this way?

Jesus tells a story about a merchant who finds a single pearl. This pearl is worth so much to the merchant that he sells everything he owns so he can buy it.¹ As the storyteller Peter Rollins points out, the pearl does not make the man rich. On the contrary, it impoverishes him. This merchant has given up everything that he owned so that he could have this pearl. He no longer has anywhere to live or any means of providing for himself.² This pearl was the only thing that he wanted, and it meant more to him than everything else.

If you know anything about Jesus, you know that He is not advocating materialism. The pearl does not represent riches or anything material. The pearl, as Jesus points out, is a metaphor for the Kingdom of Heaven.

St. Paul, when he was still known as Saul, had a lot going for him. He was a pure-blooded Hebrew who kept up with his heritage, which makes me think he was an aristocrat. He was a Pharisee who kept the Jewish Law to the letter. He was so zealous about his religion that he did everything he could to keep the infection of Christianity from spreading.³

On the day that Paul met Christ, everything changed for him. He became zealous for Christ and left everything behind to follow Him: his religion, his position in society, his name, and his former ambitions. He even left behind his freedom, since his missionary work eventually landed him in prison. Despite everything Paul went through for the sake of Christ, he never lost heart. He never lost his drive to follow Christ and to become more like Him. Christ was his "pearl."

I believe we all need something that is greater than ourselves, something that is greater than what the world can offer us. We need something more than wealth or social status. We need something that gives our lives meaning, something that keeps us going when the world fails us, something eternal.

Christ reaches out to us saying, "Follow Me."


Notes:
1 - Matthew 13:45-46
2 - Peter Rollings, The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales, pp 30-35. 2009, Paraclete Press.
3 - Philippians 3:5-6


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