LIFE'S GREAT QUESTIONS

When we ask about the purpose of life, we are not only touching the greatest questions that have challenged thinkers and philosophers down the centuries. We are enquiring into the very reason for our own existence. Nothing can be more important for us personally than to find the answer to this great mystery. Rob Yule explored this subject at Greyfriars Presbyterian Church, Mt. Eden, Auckland, on 27 February 2005, at the beginning of the church's 'Forty Days of Purpose' programme .

I remember, as a young boy, playing on the front lawn of my childhood home in the far south of New Zealand, on a warm summer's day. I was lying on my back, watching the puffy cumulus clouds float past in the breeze. Gazing into the pale blue sky, I was overcome with awe. 'How far does this extend ? What lies beyond it ? Where does it come from? How do I come to be here? If God made all this, where did God come from?' My mind reeled in dizziness as I pondered these questions.

Today we're going to look at three of life's great questions: firstly, the question of existence - 'Why am I here ?' ; secondly, the question of significance - 'Do I matter?', 'Does my life have a meaning?'; and thirdly the question of purpose - 'What am I living for', 'What is my life purpose' ?

'Why am I here?'

The first question is the question of existence, 'Why am I here?' It isn't new. It's been asked by countless philosophers. It was asked more than two and a half thousand years ago by the biblical prophet Jeremiah. 'Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?' (Jeremiah 20: 18, TEV). Perhaps you've felt that way too. Was I born for trouble? Was I put here just for heartbreak, grief and sorrow ?

Dr. Hugh Moorhead, from the Philosophy Department at Northeastern University in the United States, wrote to 250 well-known philosophers, scientists, writers and intellectuals and asked them, 'What is the purpose of Life?' He published their responses in a book. Their answers make depressing reading. Some offered their best guesses. Others said they made up a purpose for living. Some admitted they didn't have a clue what the purpose of life was, and asked Dr. Moorhead that if he knew, please to let them know !

The famous psychologist Carl Jung in his response said, 'I don't know the meaning, the purpose of life, but it looks as if something were meant by it.' Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, inventor of the term 'robotic', wrote, 'As far as I can see, there is no purpose.' One respondent, Joseph Taylor, wrote, 'I have no answers to the meaning of life and I no longer want to search for any.'

These are depressing statements, because a life without purpose isn't a life worth living. It's no wonder that the suicide rate in our society and among young people is so high. If you take God out of the equation, you take meaning out of the solution. Today, that's what many philosophies do:

Naturalism says you are just a product of random natural processes. The Naturalist says you and I are here for purely biological reasons. 'The purpose of life is to perpetuate itself.' Rap artist, Ice T, said, 'The only reason we're here is to reproduce. Just chill out and reproduce. Keep the species alive.' Well, that might conceivably motivate some people to jump into bed, but it certainly won't motivate many to get out of bed in the morning!

Hedonism says that the purpose of life is pleasure. The Hedonist says, 'P is for party. Grab it while you can, have fun, party-hard.' The trouble - as you may have noticed - is that pleasure is a by-product. It eludes you when you make it the main thing.

Materialism is the philosophy of many people in the West. They put material possessions and physical comfort before spiritual values. The Materialist says, 'Life is for getting things.' Life is measured by the things you own. 'I have, therefore I am.' But people work so hard getting things that life tends to pass them by. Ultimately, even the person with the most toys, dies.

So these are not really satisfying answers. Recognising this, many people today reject materialism and naturalism. They turn to...

Mysticism, the self-help approach, seeking life's purpose within. Go to any bookstore today and you'll find scores of self-help books. They tell you, essentially, 'Invent your purpose, create your own purpose in life.' They all give the same basic advice: aim high, discover your dreams, go after your goals, believe you can achieve.

Like sitting exams, some who follow this advice will achieve success, others will fail. But success isn't the same as knowing your life purpose. You can be a success and still never know why God put you're here. And what comes after success ? You were made by God and put here for his purposes. Until you understand that, you'll experience emptiness and frustration.

Why am I here? The Bible says, 'Long before he laid down the earth's foundation, he had us in his mind and settled on us as the focus of his love to be made whole and holy by his love.' (Ephesians 1: 4, Msg).

You and I are the 'the focus of God's love.' We were created to be loved by God. God is love (1 John 4: 8, 16). God wanted to create someone to love and so he created us. He didn't need us. He wasn't lonely. But He made us in order to love us. We are here to be loved by God.

'Do I matter?'

The second great question of life is the question of significance, 'Do I matter?' The prophet Isaiah asked this question. 'My work all seems so useless. I've spent my strength for nothing and for no purpose at all' (Isaiah 49: 4, NLT). We were made for meaning. We are meant to mean. If you don't have a meaning and purpose in your life, if you don't know why God put you here, your life won't make sense.

Rick Warren tells of prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp in Hungary during World War 2. They were made to move rubble from one field to another. The next day, they were made to take it back. The day after that they were made to move it back again. This went on day after day. The prisoners began to lose their will to live because there was no meaning, no purpose in their work. Many of them began to throw themselves in front of their guards trying to get shot, trying to commit suicide.

You and I were made for meaning. In the Bible God says, 'I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born.' (Isaiah 44: 2, CEV). A famous psalm - I call it the in utero psalm - explains how God had you in mind even before you were born. 'You are the one who put me together inside my mother's body, and I praise you because of the wonderful way you created me.... Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything I would do.' (Psalm 139: 13-14, 16, CEV). God knows you intimately. From the moment of conception he knows all about you. You matter to God.

God's purposes for you are not just for a while, they're for eternity. The Bible says, 'What the LORD has planned will stand for ever.' (Psalm 33: 11, CEV). God's plans for you are not just for the next few weeks, not even just for the rest of your life on earth; they are for ever. You were created by God to live for ever. God's purposes are eternal. God put you on earth, for you to prepare for eternity.

Your life on earth is a preparation for eternity. God wants you to prepare now for what you'll be forever. This is the key to discovering the meaning of life. The Bible says, 'Our bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth. But when these tents are destroyed, we know that God will give each of us a place to live... in heaven [that] will last forever.' (2 Corinthians 5: 1, CEV). God gave you a life that ends, to prepare you for a life that never ends, a life that will last for ever.

'What am I living for'

This brings us to the third great question of life, the question of purpose: 'What am I living for', 'What is my life purpose' ?

Bertrand Russell, one of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century, was an honest atheist. He said, 'Unless you assume the existence of God, the question of life's meaning and purpose is irrelevant.'

In short, if there is no God, your life has no ultimate meaning. If there is no God, you're just pond slime, a freak of nature. There's nothing ultimately to live for. Life is just a game, a joke without a punch line, in Shakespeare's words, 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'

For your life to have a purpose, you need to know why you are here, and who put you here. You need to know God. The Bible tells us, 'God has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet people cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.' (Ecclesiastes 3: 11, NIV). There's an infinite, God-shaped void in every human heart, and only God himself can fill it.

Human reasoning can't fathom these depths. We can't work out why we're here intellectually, just by thinking about it, because even the best philosophers can't plumb these ultimate questions. Not even mysticism can fathom these depths. You won't find the meaning of life by looking within, because the void in your heart is God-sized. You won't find it in self-help books. They're saying invent your purpose. But anything you invent is finite, it doesn't fit the infinite mesh in your heart. Only God can fill the God-shaped hole in your heart. You need a relationship with your Creator to give meaning to your life. Only by getting to know God can you have fulfilment.

In the fourth century there was a great but tortured thinker named Augustine. He sought the meaning of life in sexual freedom, and took a mistress. But sexual freedom didn't satisfy. He sought the meaning of life in philosophy, but philosophy didn't satisfy him. He sought the meaning of life in mysticism, but didn't find it there. Finally, in response to his mother's prayers, he met the living God, his Creator, and exclaimed, 'Too late have I loved you! You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you.'

You find your life purpose by getting to know your Creator. God made you for a relationship with himself. The Bible says, 'Everything was created by him, everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen.... All things were created by God's Son, and everything was made for him.' (Colossians 1: 16, CEV). If you want to know your purpose in life, start getting to know God, and Jesus Christ God's Son, through whom everything was made. The more you get to know God, the more you love God, the more you'll discover the meaning and purpose of your life.

Rob Yule, 27 February 2005

© 2005, Greyfriars Presbyterian Church