Why Am I Alive?
The Ever Present Human Need to Grasp for the Elusive Meaning of Life
By Pastor Dan Kennedy
©March 21, 2010
All of us, down deep, need to know why we exist.
We need to know the intrinsic value of who we are.
Everyone Wants To Know They Have Meaning
Foundational to our existence as human beings is our personal need to know if our own life has value and meaning – and for that meaning to be revealed to us, make sense to us, and for us to be personally satisfied with the depth and value of our meaning. In other words, we need to feel real comfortable with who we are and why we exist, or we will strike off in any direction to try to make sense of why we are alive and what gives meaning to our life!
If we sense we have no meaning, or we do not understand our meaning, then we live selfishly to merely benefit ourselves; for it is in graphic self-satisfaction we think that we give ourselves meaning and thus, to some degree, happiness.
Let’s evaluate our meaning for existence using three common theories of origination:
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Originating from Nothing, Means we are Nothing!
This human existence “need to know if we have meaning feeling” would not exist if we evolved from nothing and are going to nothing. If we came from nothing our drive to succeed in anything would be absolutely valueless.
…But we still need to know! Uniquely everybody has this “need to know that I am valuable” phenomena – it is substantially planted in the fertile ground of our human psyche! Why is this so ingrained in our soul?
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Originating from the “Seeding” of a Space Alien or “impersonal god” Still Means we are Nothing!
This need would not exist if an impersonal god or space alien dropped off a spasmodic sprinkling of the “seed of life” on this out of the way planet in the vast solar system, and then left us to be on our own, as it sped off on its way to a more exclusive and exciting planetary system!
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Originating from a Personal Creator God gives us Immense Meaning!
Our “need to know our own value and meaning” could only come from the fact that we do have immense value and meaning! That this “Someone” – our Creator-God made us to have such great meaning and He deeply cares about us!
He who made us has Extreme Meaning, and He made us in His Image. That is why we know, down deep, that we have great meaning and that our value is irreplaceable.
Where Do We Go to Find Meaning?
First of all, we have to recognize that our personal value has been terribly skewed because our human forefathers jumped off the track in their relationship with their Creator and His intentions for us, in order to pursue what they thought was a better plan of action. That brought in a chain reaction of events leading to confusion, despair, and the destructive behavior we have today. (Genesis 1-3)
•Guilt clouds the vision of our personal meaning.
•Rabbit Trails in life take us on never-ending paths promising fulfillment, only to dead-end in hopelessness.
Stripping off the Layers of Things we Think that bring Meaning
God seems to allow a certain stripping of the façade of life away from each person, so that each can see more clearly his or her necessary need of Him.
God’s goal in this stripping away of that which seems to give us meaning, points mankind to the ultimate reality that mankind’s only truly satisfying meaning rests in knowing God.
Funeral Videos
In most of the funerals I have attended for many years, there has been a slide or video presentation of the deceased’s life. They are wonderful reminders of the beauty of a life, but they also subtlety show the normal process of how we human beings seem to find our meaning:
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•In many cases there are pictures of childhood…maybe infant pictures…pictures in which the child holds nothing in his or hand, instead mostly pictures of the baby by him or herself, or in someone’s arms.
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•Then we see pictures show the child growing older – accompanied by adults, siblings, or a favorite bike, dog, or pony.
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•Next are often a collage of photos with more things and a variety of people, places and things…sometimes the individual’s favorite things, hobbies, accomplishments, trophies, family, children, and grandchildren.
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•Then, if the person was older, pictures begin focus on the individual again; at the home they spent their final years, etc. Quite often the person is pictured with less things around him, or alone, because of the loss of loved ones, who had gone on before.
We begin with nothing and we close a long life with nothing…where is meaning?
Meaning, I believe can only be found with a growing relationship with one’s Creator. Everything else is eventually stripped away…the longer one lives life. Friends pass away; family gets involved elsewhere or moves away. Life is no longer a hectic titanic maze of family and school events, business transactions and social life. The hectic maze of life begins to slow down as we grow older, and eventually almost everything comes to a stop. Where is meaning?
Does Life’s Meaning come by Reaching the Goals We have made in Life?
What are the goals that you and I have set for ourselves in life?
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• Financial goals.
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• Educational goals.
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• Marriage goals.
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• Children goals.
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• Business goals.
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• Retirement goals.
How many of these goals will last when you face the conclusion of your life?
Have we ever set a goal of growing in relationship with our Creator?
What if the only lasting meaning in life is found in a growing relationship with our Creator?
If Relationship with our Creator Gives Meaning…what should we do?
In all the goals of life, the one goal that should be sustained – that should be the “glue” that hold our life on course and in balance, should be the goal of developing and growing a deeper relationship with God.
What are some of the qualities of a positive relationship: fellowship, communication and relationship?
Growing a deeper relationship with God, our Creator doesn’t mean just spending more time at church programs…or getting involved in more service or volunteer organizations. It means growing more deeply in our personal walk with the Lord. Communicating with God in prayer. Meditating more frequently in His Word, the Bible. Listening more closely to what the Holy Spirit may be prompting us to do. It may mean saying “no” to some of the aspects of life that simply make us busier, to instead spend quality time with God! This is the relationship that is going to last for eternity!
If true meaning comes back to a relationship with one’s Creator when all the hecticness of life is stripped away, then it would wise to develop that relationship throughout one’s life rather than scrambling to find such a relationship through the clouded waters of uncertain human goals, rife with the gnarly driftwood and dangerous debris of hurt, guilt and pain. One should strive to draw near in relationship with his or her Creator while one is navigating in the polluted waters through life. Such a positive relationship with God, in fact, will carry us through these rough times!
How do I begin this relationship with God?
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Realize that we cannot normally have a deeper relationship with God because of our broken relationship with God. Our sin has separated us from God. (Romans 3:23)
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Believe, as the Bible has said, that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross to offer us forgiveness of our sins and reestablish a relationship with God. (See John 3:16; 1 Peter 1:17-19; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10)
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Accept Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for our sin for ourselves. In doing so, we begin an honorable relationship with God. We do this by praying and asking God to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from it through the sacrifice for sin Jesus had for us, on the cross. Just tell God, “I am sorry for my sin. Please forgive me through the blood of Christ, that You provided for me!” God has provided this as the way back to a relationship with Himself! Ask God to transform you from the inside out to be His Child, by the Power of His Holy Spirit! (Titus 3:5)
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Tell God that you want the broken relationship with Him to be healed through Christ, and that you want to become His Child and have a growing and deepening relationship with Him!
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Find a Bible and begin reading in the books of Luke and John (the 3rd and 4th book in the New Testament). Feel free to read anywhere in the Bible! If you don’t understand what you are reading, ask God to help you understand!
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Find a church that believes and teaches the truths of the Bible and begin to regularly attend. Seek to build honorable relationships with those in church. If you have a question you need answering and you cannot find help, you can send me an email at pastorkennedy@gmail.com and I will help you as much as I can, with questions you may have.
Christ wanted those around Him to draw near to God before they were callused and cold toward God; before they became cynical and skeptical; before they eternally perished.
Now let’s consider four important layers that people naturally value as giving them meaning in life but in focusing on them alone can cloud our hearts and become a façade if they are the sole focus; if they keep us from pursuing meaning in life through a personal relationship with our Creator.
Layer 1 – The Façade of Possessions: The Rich Young Man
Material Goals can become our sole focus, rather than our relationship with our Creator
Matthew 19
The Rich Young Man
16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
The moment Christ saw him, He loved the talented and motivated Rich Young Ruler who came to Him seeking eternal life. In fact, the first question that the man asked Christ was skewed: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Christ could see that his reliance on riches and possessions to give him the power to do the good deed that would allow him to inherit eternal life, was totally opposite to how eternal life could be obtained! This man’s wealth would eventually perilously draw his moldable heart away from God.
The same happened to the successful man, in Christ’s parable, whose land was very fertile and produced great crops. He wanted to build more barns to warehouse his growing wealth, and enjoy the full pleasures of his opulent lifestyle – not realizing that God would require an accounting of his soul that very same evening.
Luke 12
15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Riches often become the source of security, and a fatal trap to many of those so endowed (1 Timothy 6:6-11; Heb. 13:5).
Being “Rich Toward God”
Are we “Rich toward God”? Being “rich toward God” is the only way we can have a truly meaningful life. How do we become “Rich toward God”?
Layer 2 – The Façade of Pleasure: The Prodigal Son
Pleasurable Pursuits can become our sole focus, rather than our relationship with our Creator
Luke 15
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Christ told the story of the prodigal son. This young man wanted “the good life”, away from the farm, his father and his rigid brother. But the good life he followed became a growing cancer to his soul. When all was stripped away, he came back to his senses and returned with a humbled heart to his father. But it needed to be stripped away first, before he could clearly see.
God allows the carnal and callusing layers of our life to be taken away so we will focus on that which will most certainly give us the meaning, for which the depth of our soul so longs.
oDoes God do this through weakness and not through power?
oDoes God allow this sometimes through dismal failure and not through brilliant success?
oDoes God sometimes allow our physical bodies to feel the pain of aging or hurtful sickness even in the young, to point to the reality of our ultimate conclusion physically, so that we will learn to focus on what is truly important – our eternal relationship with our Creator?
Are we going through disappointments, trials or pain? Have we failed to accomplish the “goals” in life that we believed were so necessary? Is God using this so that the façade of the things in our life are being stripped away so we will look more closely to our relationship with God – the most important part of our meaning?
Layer 3 – The Façade of People: the Seeming Strong but Ultimately Temporary Security of Intimate Friends and Extended Family. The Woman at the Well
Questionable Relational Pursuits can become our sole focus, rather than our relationship with our Creator
John 4
The Woman at the Well
5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
The sharp-witted woman at the well was versed in the art of deflection. When Jesus asked the woman to bring her husband, she played with words to avoid the awkwardness of reality! “I don’t have a husband.”
Jesus responded to her that she had previously been the wife of five husbands and the man she was living with was not her husband…so she was answering correctly!
This woman used people – multiple husbands in particular, to bring her financial and practical security.
People are another level of insulation to keep us safe and give us meaning.
Layer 4 – The Façade of Power: The Volatile Battleground and Illusive Quest for Dominance and Authority. The Rich Man and Lazarus
Riches, Relationships and Power can become our sole focus, rather than our relationship with our Creator
Luke 16
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
The rich man was not only rich, which made him powerful (and without the need of God), but he also had five brothers, who, most likely, were also rich and together may have been a political powerhouse in the community in which they lived. He desperately did not want them to come to the same terrible place in which he found himself.
Lazarus
Everything had been stripped away from Lazarus. He did not have finances, health or position in the community; but, he had an obvious relationship with His Creator.
Conclusion
Why are you and I alive?
Christ died for our sins so we could be reconciled with God, be transformed by the Holy Spirit and begin growing in a fulfilling relationship with our Creator.
Stripping off the Layers of Things we Think that bring Meaning
God seems to allow a certain stripping of the façade of life away from each person, so that each can see more clearly his or her necessary need of Him.
God’s goal in this stripping away, points mankind to the ultimate reality that mankind’s only truly satisfying meaning rests in knowing God.
With everything stripped away, it is so we will have a profound relationship with the One who made us. That we may know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering…
Philippians 3
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Being “Rich Toward God”
Are we “Rich toward God”? You and I are living today to have a growing and eternal relationship with our Creator, no matter what our status in life…and to share this hope with others! This is being “rich toward God”. This life has eternal meaning!
Think of where you are going in life, and no matter what you have in life, or what you are doing in life, build that personal relationship with God in your life. Such a relationship with God will give meaning and purpose through all of life’s transitions!
