I have been writing often, recently, on the subject of the universal task of finding meaning for one’s life. This is due largely in part to experiencing an intense search for meaning in many areas of life, myself.
The topic of one’s real purpose in life is one that I feel cannot be fully exhausted. Name a thing in a person’s life that is more meaningful than actually finding meaning. There are a plethora of ultimately useless objects and ideas which easily capture one’s focus, but the meaningful objects and ideas are underrated. And so, I am attempting to turn my readers eyes to an idea of far more ultimate significance. That of actual meaning.
As I write, I often write words and find that I am surprised by the depth of them. Such a moment just occurred, as I considered the phrase “ultimate significance.” In life, there can only be one thing or idea that is of ultimate significance. It is what one, above all else, will follow even to the death. It is of such importance that even that which we consider to be next in order of importance, multiplied by one thousand, could not negate or overtake the thing of ultimate significance; otherwise it could not quite be called ultimate.
But what is that which could possibly assume the role of actual ultimate significance? Maybe for one it is a car. Or a career. Such things last until a break-down, or until you tire of them. Perhaps for another it is a spouse, or family in general. While those are of extreme significance to one’s life, I doubt they can lay claim to the role of ultimate significance for long. For in the finite capacity of a human, each one is subject to death eventually. And if the object of ultimate significance is subject to death, it can hardly be considered ultimate; it could not be the true object of top priority implied by the word ‘ultimate,’ since there is still one’s life to be lived, even after the death of their ultimate purpose.
Perhaps then, one would not be in need of finding an ultimate significance. Maybe it is enough to live with priorities that become priorities no longer each time the death of the object of priority comes about. One could easily switch what they think is most important to fit their current lot in life. However, without an ultimate meaning, could there exist any actual meaning? Possibly so. One might be able to find a semblance of meaning within finite things, but these are ever-changing, and once one’s own death is brought about, what is left? There is nothing but this object of priority, and when its inevitable death is realized, there is absolutely nothing. So, yes, there might be meaning found even without an ultimate meaning, but such meaning seem quite meaningless if it ends in so soon a time.
Having established some things that cannot assume the role of ultimate significance, and having shown that without any sort of ultimate significance, meaning is, at best, a picture of ultimate futility, let us now look at what I think to be the only plausible candidate who may allow the role of ultimate significance to be realized: God.
Consider one who allows God to fulfill that role in their life. This person has found the only one who is actually never-changing, and thus, a never-changing significance. Death cannot shake the fact that God is ultimately significant. For God will never die, and as to ourselves, even when our death on earth is brought about, our ultimate purpose (God) lives on. The beauty of this that we may then live on in Christ, literally forever.
If one finds their ultimate significance in God, it allows them to have correct perspectives regarding other areas of life. We are able to understand what matters. If our love, our goals, and our visions are directed first to Him, all other objects of significance will be able to be loved properly, and our goals and visions will be realized properly.
God is truly the only qualified contender for the position of ultimate significance. All else will fade if He is not realized as such.