Everything is Meaningless

Dear Anonymous Reader,


When writing, for me, one of the hardest things to reach is the end.


...


See? What you don't realize is that in the space of that little three dot ellipses there, over four days have gone by. I started this post with an end in mind...


...but then it just went right out the proverbial window. 


Solomon loved blabbing on about the end and all the vanity in between.

"For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?" -Ecclesiastes 6:12

Or even better:

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." -Eccl. 3:11

Ooo, but wait, the kicker:

"I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless." -Eccl. 3:18, 19 (emphases added) 

A little bit of a downer compared to that oft quoted Jeremiah 29:11, eh? Here you have one of the wisest men who ever lived, and what's his conclusion?


"Everything is meaningless."


Jeremiah, the Weeping Prophet, on the other hand, quoted God as telling His people that He knew His plans for them, to give them "a future and a hope."


Not so meaningless sounding.


I know the end I have in mind, many times, for a lot of the things I write. It's just getting there that's difficult. I never just want to slap a few meaningless filler-words on paper to crowd the blank, white space in between my catchy intro and snappy conclusion.


Even though that can be a bad habit sometimes.


Because by the end of the paper, no matter how deep or creative or catchy my conclusion is, if there wasn't something meaningful in between it all, then it all would definitely be meaningless.


Take the chick-flick for example. We'd save ourselves a lot of time and drama if the movie went in snapshots like this:

Boy miraculously and randomly meets girl. Lots of drama ensues. Girl leaves boy. Boy, through a bunch of off the wall, unrealistic events wins girl back. Boy marries girl in a totally random and unexpected way. The end.

Yeah, I'd go broke on that story. But that's the outline for almost every cash-cow sappy movie out there.


Why?


It's a reflection of us and our desires.


We're born (and some don't even make it that far), not of our own volition, into a crappy world. It's full of murder, theft, rape, incest, disease, poverty, war, famine, climate change (oh, the terror), and infomercials. It's a luck of the draw (or Providence?) where we end up. Many reading this live in America, which, despite the crappy economical/political climate, is still the richest/most free nation in the world. But even in that, you could either be born into a wealthy (or well-off) family that is able to provide for all your needs up until the point you can provide a stable income for yourself, or you could be born into poverty where, unless you get lucky, there's a good chance you'll die young, poor, and alone.


And that's just in America. 


After birth, the rest of life is our attempt to navigate through this mess until we finally meet our end: Death. For some, we have the hope of something after. For others, we've succumbed to the idea that there's nothing.


Zilch. 


Nadda.


Utter meaninglessness. 


Over the last few weeks, I've reflected on not as much the how am I going to have a meaningful life, but more on the why? Why should I try to find a well paying career if, in the end, I'm gonna lose it all anyway? Why should I pursue a wife who might leave me, I might leave her (even though I would never plan to), she might die before me and leave me alone anyway or I might die before her, or she might have an accident and not even be the person I remember marrying, or...you get my point. Why have children when there's a chance they could die before I do, they could turn out to be "special" and not have the innate ability to even have a life of their own, or they could just turn out to be crappy kids I'm ashamed of when they grow up. Why pursue friendships since everyone changes, everyone moves on, and even if you keep in touch every once in awhile, it generally consists of frivolous updates that don't actually maintain anything meaningful as far as a relationship is concerned?


And why, when there's a chance that even while you're living, Alzheimer's could invade your brain and you could forget about everything anyway and  leave in the same state you entered this world (like an infant, helpless, unknowing, and unable to do anything about it), would you want to pursue anything at all?


Depressing? Most definitely. 


This isn't a Christian vs. Atheist debate on why God provides meaning. I consider myself a devote Christian and these are questions I struggle with ever day of my life. 


My life is plagued at every turn with that big, fat question Why?


Everything's gonna end, so Why?


And then, inevitably enough, a voice whispers through the shadow of all those questions and reminds me:

It's not about me.

So, as we all prepare for Christmas this year and celebrate the birth of a Savior, in the midst of all my questions I realize that it's not about whether I allow my life to have meaning or not, but will I do my part to make life meaningful for others?

"Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” -Matthew 20:26-28

I've learned, for myself at least, that it's not about the beginning, and the end (on earth anyway) is the same for all of us, but it's the in-between that counts. As long as I search for meaning in myself (like Solomon in all of his searching), I'll never find it. But when I look to serve others, to make their lives meaningful, then I fulfill the command Christ gave 2000 years ago.

In that He gives my life the ultimate meaning:

Himself.

Merry Christmas :)

Sincerely,

-Sean