Does Life Have Any Meaning?

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Does Life Have Any Meaning?

Well, yes, frankly it is important.

If you’ve ever made a decision in your life—and who hasn’t?— then you’ve implied that there is some kind of meaning out there. Either it is affecting you to make a decision, or you’re making a decision in order to aim for it. Not every choice we make is of the same

magnitude. For example, one study out of Cornell University determined that we make, on average, 226.7 decisions a day just on food. Another found we made anything up to 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day. Most of these are of minor consequence, but all our decisions add up to make us who we are, and what we are about. And we all make some very important decisions in our lives, which affect us and others. Where should I live? Whom should I love? What should I do? As soon as we ask, “Should I?” we are seeking something that is bigger than ourselves. We are seeking to align our life with something. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are seeking purpose.

This is, in fact, a way of trying to gain control over our lives. But there are many facets of life that are simply beyond our ability to control. None of us controlled when and where we were born, who our biological parents were, or what DNA they imparted to us. And none of us has any way of controlling death—sooner or later it will come for us. And yet, these two extremities of our lives—birth and death— shape us in the most profound and fundamental

ways. We cannot control everything in our life, and so we cannot pretend that we can create our own meaning by the things we can control. There’s just so much more to our lives than the aspects of it within our control.

Then there are times when something comes along and robs us of the control we thought we did have. We lose a job. We lose a child. We lose our health. Crises are moments that weigh down heavily upon us, not just because they stir up such strong emotions, but because they often shove us into new directions that we had not planned on going. We are like billiard balls—nice and still until another ball careens into us, sending us hurtling towards a corner pocket. Crises remind us that the meaning of life is actually bigger than all of us and beyond our ability to control. We cannot control everything in our life, and so we cannot pretend that we can create our own meaning by the things we can control.

Before 2020 most of us hadn’t heard of the word ‘coronavirus’ or ‘COVID-19’. But this miniscule virion caused a pandemic which

Crises remind resulted in most countries us that the going into some form of meaning of lockdown. Our lives changed. life is actually We were confined to our bigger than all of us and homes. We were restricted from beyond our coming within a few feet of ability to control. others. We were urged to wash our hands thoroughly, and stop touching our faces. Human history has had multiple bouts of deadly pandemics, but never before had the entire planet come to a standstill. We were trying to stop the spread of the virus while people were dying and businesses were going bust. Meanwhile billions of dollars were being poured into medical research to try to develop a vaccine in a race against time.

How did the pandemic affect you? Was your university shut down? Did your overseas friends

who were studying with you have to return to their home country, without any assurance about whether they’d be able to get back to complete their study? Did you lose a job you just started, so that now you are struggling to get income, making you dependent on welfare and special arrangements? Are you now struggling to pay the rent or the mortgage? Did you find yourself suddenly having to mind and educate your children on your own at home, while trying to work at home, too? Did you find yourself sick, getting tested, and waiting nervously for the result? Did your steady life continue as before, but just in a different mode?

The virus has made us realise that we are all interconnected whether we realise it or not. Even shut in our own homes, we are still dependent on each other, and yet affected by each other. Just one infected person has the potential of passing this terrible disease on to many, many others. The destiny of The virus has made us realise that we are all interconnected whether we realise it or not.

other people is, in part, my responsibility.

Crises like the Coronavirus pandemic have the ability to stop us in our tracks, make us take stock of our lives, evaluate, and try to find meaning.earned from Jesus how to love, how to put others ahead of themselves, how to forgive, how to reconcile, how to show compassion, and how to make peace.

We could say that their own influence and significance is simply a further outworking of Jesus’ influence and significance.

At this point, you might wonder: Why was Jesus such a significant influence? What sort of a person was he?