The Search for Meaning

“Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?  Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.  The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.  The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.  All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.  All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.  What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun……Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:2-9, 2:11)

Solomon, who ascended the throne after his father King David, spent many years in the search for the meaning of life.  Ultimately he found that everything in life has a pattern—a cycle—and it repeats over and over.  People are born, they grow up, get old and die.  And when a man dies, we put on his tombstone that he was born on a certain date, and that he died on a certain date. Between these two points of time we live our lives.  So, the basic question is, “Does my life have meaning?”  In some ways, my own life resembled that of King Solomon.  Of course, I never became a king, but I spent many years seeking meaning to my life. 

I’m not sure how best to describe my early years.  I grew up in a Christian family in the fifties; with a father who worked very hard to provide for us both physically and spiritually, and a mother who gave us the love and nurturing that most kids today only seem to dream about.  I am so grateful to them for the life they gave me.  When I was seven years old I received Jesus as my Savior.  Yet to this day, I don’t believe I truly understood the full implications of that decision. 

As a teenager, I was impulsive, and more than a little immature.  Not a good combination.  I became entangled in the Cultural Revolution of the sixties and seventies; a time of hippies, free love, and drugs.  I rebelled against God and family, in search of that elusive “something” I felt was missing in my life.  I had the whole world before me, so I set out to find my own way.  From that point on it was a downhill slide. 

My parents had been so excited when I decided to follow my father’s footsteps into the Navy after graduation from high school, and they had great hope this would change my perspective.  Yet, after the military, I spent many years traveling through life without a nickel’s worth of an idea what I was doing and where I was going.  The next nine years was a journey spanning three countries in search of peace, happiness, and contentment, but all I found were drugs, alcohol, and broken dreams.  I wandered from one town, one drink, and one relationship to the next—always wondering what was over the next hill, always seeking that next adventure. 

But each step I took into what appeared to be an exciting new adventure, quickly became misery and emptiness.  I had such a rebellious attitude I could not hold a job for very long.  Most of those years were spent on the street trying to panhandle enough money for a meal, although most of it went to purchase alcohol and cigarettes.  Surprisingly, the easiest to find were drugs.  In those days it was much cheaper, and there were always so called friends around who would share a joint or a needle with you.  My “great adventure” saw the years going by without the purpose I was seeking, or anything else for that matter. 

God never gave up on me either, but I still wasn’t ready to turn back to Him.  Finally, after an almost fatal overdose—during which I heard my “friends” discuss where to dump my body—I woke up to reality and began to make my way back.  While all the “great adventures” had led to nowhere, the Holy Spirit, my parent’s love, and my grandmother’s prayers stayed with me. 

Through studying God’s word, I came to understand the importance of Bible study and prayer as critical to communication with God, and He slowly, yet steadily became part of my everyday life.  And eventually, I began to follow His leading in my life, as He began to make clear that any hope and meaning could be found only in Him.

In Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord reminds us, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The fact is without God, your life is just like the one Solomon described in Ecclesiastes—vanity and emptiness.  Pleasure, education, your job, wealth—these can never give life meaning.  They are only the topping on the pie of life.  Real meaning can only be found in Jesus.  “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)

True happiness—true life—is found only in the Life-Giver, who is the Creator, GOD.  Our origin was not in the primordial soup, but in the very hands of God, who shaped us and breathed life into us.  Our destiny is not just to return to dust, but to give honor and praise to God forever.  Under heaven we find purpose.  If we have God as our origin and as our destiny, then there is a reason for our lives.  There is a reason for our suffering and a reason for our pain.  And, there is also a reason for our joy.

JESUS!

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