Many of us, at least in the Western world, are privileged to have lives that are full of rewarding experiences. Although on one level this is a great blessing, I wonder if on another level, it’s inherently dangerous. The danger is that we actually find such fulfillment and focus in our daily work, projects, hobbies or relationships that we don’t feel a need to ask the bigger questions of life. Questions like: Why am I here? Was I created or am I just a random DNA accident? If I’m created, can I actually know my creator?
You would think that being the intelligent, rational, enlightened modernists that we are (tongue in cheek), we’d never fall into the trap of being content to live in a state of such spiritual ignorance as we seem to passively accept! Upon analysis it seems evident that although we claim that we’d like to know if God exists, we really don’t translate that into actively searching Him out. It seems that we are prepared to settle for being clueless in the arena of these ”ultimate” things so long as we can fill the void with other things, medicating ourselves with the pursuit of our immediate felt needs. This means we really aren’t as objective as we’d like to think. The human heart seems not so much to desire truth as it does comfort.
In my own life, it was only through crumbling into the despair of depression that my eyes were opened to see my lack of ultimate context and purpose. It’s a strange paradox that sometimes we need to know brokenness before we can see our need for more than we have within ourselves. When things go well and life is easy we can be so busy and fulfilled that we never stop to consider why we exist.
The bible says that hope, meaning and purpose are found in Jesus Christ. This is the all important foundation on which to build a great life. Firstly, we need to be reconnected to our Creator in a real and personal way through his Son Jesus. Secondly, we are given purpose, responsibility and challenge within the context of hope.
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do – The Bible (Ephesians Ch 2, Verse 10)
Some good thoughts Blaise!
I can say too, that on my short visits to developing countries The Philippines and Fiji, it really made me realize that we over here “are privileged to have lives that are full of rewarding experiences”. I think this may be part of why many people don’t consider following Jesus, or say they do and don’t live their life in that way. But in the slums of Manila, people don’t have all those rewarding experiences, and so they know they need Jesus.
Sam