What is the point? What does my life mean? What can my life mean? I hear these questions from people inside and outside of the Church. I try to point out that the first question is whether "Life" (the totality, not just my individual existence) has any point, meaning, direction or purpose. Why bother to worry whether my particular life has "meaning" if Life in General is pointless? And if Life in General has any point, meaning, direction or purpose, then I can rest a bit easier about the nature of my particular part of that Life in General.
I am re-reading N. T. Wright's great, great book, Surprised by Hope, to prepare for our Lenten adult class at Luther Memorial Church. That was a life-changing and ministry-altering book the first time I read it. It remains that powerful for me today.
After Wright tackles the historical challenges of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, he moves into the second part of the book, "God's Future Plan." He notes that he could have gone directly to a discussion of our individual resurrection hopes. That, however, would have been backwards and inside out. He writes,
"If we start with the future hope of the individual, there is always the risk that we will at least by implication understand that as the real center of everything and treat the hope of creation as mere embroidery around the edges. That has happened often enough. I am keen to rule it out by the structure of the argument, as well as through detailed exposition" (page 80).
If I begin with a focus on my own existence, then I have no framework or resources to find meaning when that existence goes into the dumper. If I suffer Radical Loss, if I am jolted out of the complacency of trouble-free existence, if I start to have Real Problems (the kind that most people in the world deal with on a daily basis) and if all I have is my own existence, then I will plunge into existential despair or take a long swim in the River of Denial. That is the price of living life with myself as the Center of It All. I have to keep it all together by myself. And when it all falls apart, there is nowhere else to turn.
As a Christian, I seek the meaning and purpose of life in a Reality and Cause greater than myself. I find that Reality and Cause expressed and enacted, as does Tom Wright, in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the beginning of God's New Creation. That is what makes it possible to survive the real challenges to individual meaning and purpose that existence presents. Creation is being renewed moment by moment, even though I face (as Paul puts it) slight momentary afflictions to the contrary.
When I stay connected to God's New Creation project, I can live through the storms and know that the rainbow waits on the other side.
See Wright's book at...
And/or take part in our class at LMC from 5:45 to 6:30 starting February 20th.
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