Is There Meaning to Life?
What do you do when you're bored? A recent Associated Press News Service story mentioned the recreational choice of two teens. Having used the video game Grand Theft Auto 'a means of escaping the monotony of teenage life,' they decided to act it out by shooting at cars. They wound up killing one person and injuring others.
Some choices reveal a sad lack of meaning to a life. Many people wonder whether or not their lives have a purpose. Can you relate? If so, the book of Ecclesiastes was written for you.
The message of Ecclesiastes is brutally straightforward. The writer, Solomon, tells us that he has tried everything life has to offer--wine, women, and song (the ancient equivalent of sex, drugs, and alternative rock). His conclusion is this: 'Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty' (Ecc:12:13). In other words, God gives meaning to our lives. No God, no meaning.
Think of it this way: Without God, you are just a bunch of molecules thrown together by chance. If there is no God, you came from--and are headed toward--impersonal nothingness. Any attempt at finding purpose is utterly doomed to failure. You might just as well be a lizard, or a rock, or nothing at all . . . if there is no God.
Sounds pretty bleak, doesn't it? It is bleak, if we subtract God from the equation. This belief that there is no God and therefore no meaning is what has driven many, including some of the greatest minds in history, to despair, alcoholism, and even suicide.
The good news is: There is something more. We don't have to run pointlessly after illusions like a slightly more sophisticated version of a hamster on a treadmill. There is a God who created you, knows you by name, loves you, and wants you to know him intimately. He gives meaning to life as he calls us to follow him in his grand adventure.
If you're searching for meaning, follow the writer of Ecclesiastes to its source: a lifelong, personal encounter with God.
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