Meaning?

With my 70^th birthday a few days away I am reflecting on life; choices made, days invested or wasted. My reveries are part nostalgia and more importantly, evaluation. I think these thoughts are common to people of a certain age.  There are so many ways to measure one’s life, aren’t there?  Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, with a net worth estimated at more than $200 billion, is getting married in Venice today. The wedding will gather 200 of the world’s glitterati and cost more than $75 million! Such excess is one way to attempt to declare one’s worth.

We more common folk look a bit differently on life, right?

We might ask -
*How much money do I have in the bank?
*What kind of status do I enjoy?
*What positions did I hold?
*What awards with my name etched on them hang on a wall somewhere?
*Was I happy?
*Did I make family relationships work? Who loves me/hates me?
*Is a street named in my honor?
*Did my life add net worth to my place in this world?

There is a book in the Bible that asks and answers the question of meaning.
An old king named Solomon wrote it, calling himself “the Teacher.”  He had a whole list of accomplishments – cities and buildings he had brought into existence, a prosperous nation he had led, hedonistic pleasures beyond the imagination of most enjoyed, great wealth amassed, envy and recognition of many… and in summary he cynically recognizes that none of it proves a thing about his meaning, purpose, or ultimate value.

He cries “as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.” (Ecclesiastes 2)

When life comes down to the essence of our existence, there are just two measures of worth and value. Jesus calls them the ‘greatest commandments.’ “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22)

Rich or poor, famous or obscure, accomplished or not, what pleases God and gives us the deepest satisfaction is knowing and living in God’s love, gifted to us through Christ Jesus, and then boldly loving others – not just in words, but with profound care, respect, and compassion. He asks, “what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?” (Mark 8)

Solomon set aside his cynicism in the end and left this inspired wisdom to us. We do well to heed his words so that when we are near the end of the race, we will not cry that life has been a ‘vanity of vanities,’  without meaning! He says “Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.”… Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.”  (Ecclesiastes 12)

Here is a prayer of Augustine. As we make his words our own, may our choices make our lives full of holy purpose and eternal significance. Let us pray -

“Grant me, even me, my dearest Lord, to know you, and love you, and rejoice in you.
And, if I cannot do these perfectly in this life, let me at least advance to higher degrees every day, until I can come to do them in perfection.

Let the knowledge of you increase in me here, that it may be full hereafter. Let the love of you grow every day more and more here, that it may be perfect hereafter; that my joy may be full in you.

I know, O God, that you are a God of truth, O make good your gracious promises to me, that my joy may be full; to your honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and forever. Amen." (Augustine - 354-430)

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Lesser Things?

In the Summer of 1974, I fell in love, really madly in love! I thought of Bev when I awakened, dreamed about her when I went to sleep. When I was driving to pick her up for a date, I planned ways to surprise her with little gifts. As I discovered more and more about her likes and desires, I made it my purpose to delight her. There were cards, flowers, and phone calls – because I was focused on her.

40 years later, as she was dying, my life centered around her for those final months- sitting with her through the evenings, often just silent, coming home from the office early to care for her needs. It was not an effort because of our connection, the priority of love we had cultivated for decades!

Christians who want to know the real joy promised by Christ Jesus will make a similar kind of choice to prioritize Him in life. They will choose a higher focus, a daily connection, keeping Him in mind and heart through the day. The Spirit-inspired words of Colossians 3 teach us that. “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.”

 A key to this kind of focus is the Resurrection of Jesus, that pivotal event that reveals our eternal nature and God’s promise of forever life. Christians tend to focus on the Cross, where Jesus satisfied the holiness of God and opened the way for our reconciliation to our Creator Father. What happened at Calvary is important, but it is not the whole of the God-story. The completion, the ultimate moment was triumph over Death!

That is why in the passage I quoted earlier we read that we are ‘raised to new life with Christ.’  Our Christian hope is not just to live a bit better for a few decades on this earth. In Christ we become creatures of eternity, our goal a home with God in Heaven.

Make no mistake, there is a whole lot of living to be done before we go on Home, BUT the way in which we live is to be shaped by the promise of our Heavenly home. “Set your sights on the realities of Heaven” we are told. Let that hope captivate your heart and mind so that every thought is aimed at that moment when we step over time’s threshold into the unimaginable splendor of the Father’s house.

Yes, I live in the same world in which you live. I know fully well how easily attention is diverted to the new shiny things that can be bought. I know that promised wealth and greater pleasure can obscure our vision. Oh yes, I believe that we can and should live to enjoy love, to find a place of connection with others, and to experience the satisfaction that can be found in a great meal, a comfortable home, and rich relationships.

HOWEVER, those things are all transitory, easily taken from us by storms, wars, economic cycles, or cruel, selfish people. So, we remember always that our “real life is hidden with Christ in God.”  

What is most amazing about being possessed by the promise of eternal life through Christ is that we will live and love better in this world! That same passage continues making a direct connection between what we know of Heaven’s promise and the life we live.

The word from the Word comes from the practical instructions about the ‘new life’ we enjoy. Make the Risen Lord and the hope of Heaven your focus then go bless your world.

“Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.
Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.
Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 
And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. …
Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.”

Amen

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