Meaning & Purpose

SCRIPTURE: You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9 ESV

THOUGHT: In a recent interview, Dennis Prager pointed out that people cannot live without meaning and purpose, and when it is stripped from them for any reason, they will search for new meaning and purpose, good or evil. He observes that we have such a crisis in the United States.

In another interview, Nancy Pearcey, who was an agnostic until studying under Francis Schaeffer in the late 70s, traced how Darwin’s theories (150 years ago) led to a shift away from the worldview that God created the truth in which science operates. With scientific theory separated from revealed truth, man’s observations were elevated, while God’s revelation became optional, questionable.

Darwin believed everything in the universe was haphazard; arbitrary collections of cells – no ultimate design or designer. The fruit of this worldview, which Pearcey calls secular liberalism (and Prager radicalized liberalism) is that people have dismissed God and God’s claims about human flourishing and turned to find ultimate meaning in the claims of science, philosophy, psychology, themselves, others, etc. – in essence, randomly selecting for themselves meaning and purpose that can change and shift depending on the day.

The leap from believing creation is all chance to rejecting the biological claims of humanness, maleness, femaleness, parenthood, or the definitions of life or marriage is surprisingly short. If my body is the product of a chance configuration of cells, of mindless material forces without inherent purpose, why should the structure of my body inform my identity?, the secular liberal asks. Why not defy the structure if it means nothing?

Sadly, the leap to separating personhood from human life is short too, leading to a dualism of mind and body: the notion that the only authentic self is the choosing self – what you choose supersedes biological wiring. Dualism also leads to separating humans into categories of those who deserve to live and those who don’t (often those who can’t choose). It’s a short leap too, and we find ourselves again at the precipice of ideologies that lead to experimentation and extermination of devalued life.

If nothing but random chance exists, there is a low view of what it means to be human. The low view rejects that humans are made in God’s image and endowed with certain unalienable rights, and is a set up for dictators and tyrants. If God gave it, only God can take it away; if government gave it, government can take it away. Moral law becomes only man-made convention and can be accepted or rejected based on preference. Only the fittest deserve to survive.

I’m not the poster child for meaning and purpose – I’ve struggled with it mightily, recovering from childhood sexual abuse, divorce, job loss, loss of home, and loss of identity along the journey. Who I thought I was and should be was tossed in the crucible over and over. But I can tell you this: when I finally came to trust that the God of the universe had answers, and that he called me chosen, royal, a priest, part of something holy, a special treasure, it meant something to me. I found meaning and purpose in God’s promise: a name, an identity that will go on into eternity.

PRAYER: Thank you for the promise of meaning and purpose, oh God. For the sacred act of naming each child of yours chosen, royal, a priest, part of something holy, a special treasure, and thank you for giving us purpose in sharing your big story with others who need hope.