Meaning Of Life

On December 15, I posted an article titled “I Am Me – I Am Special!”.  I had written that article in September 2018. But a few days ago while looking through other articles I have written, I came across another one that I wrote seven months later – “Meaning Of Life.”  It has some of the same ideas as the first one but builds on the idea of how special we are and a bit more. So I wanted to share it with you:

I believe it would be the very rare individual that has not at some point in their life gotten at least a little depressed – and maybe more seriously wondered why they were even here on earth.  I know I have found myself in a depressed state more than once in my lifetime. It is easy when we go through disappointments and difficulties to go down that road. We question, doubt and blame ourselves – sometimes rightfully so and other times not so much.  I know that I have blamed myself all too often, sometimes as a result of having been too much of a perfectionist; sometimes because of the pressures of society; sometimes because of the expectations laid out there for women in general, etc.

Oh …I was in charge of this event and something went wrong, I must have missed some detail.

Oh …I have gained weight, so I bet that I did not get that job because of the way I look.

Oh …I must be a failure as a wife because my husband cheated on me.

Oh …oh….oh…woe is me!

The fact is, if we feel ourselves doubting, questioning and sliding down the slippery slope of depression, we need to take our eyes off of ourselves and our circumstances.  We need to get our eyes on Jesus and focus on what He means to us; but, even more importantly, what we mean to Him.  

Jesus was the hand of God that created everything – at His pleasure and for His pleasure.  “…everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him.” (Colossians 1:16b The Message)

And, rest assured, none of us are an accident.  We are intentional.  “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Psalm 139:13-16 New Living Translation)  “But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace…” (Galatians 1:15a New Living Translation)  “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.  God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1:4-5 New Living Translation)  

Jesus was God’s first – His one and only Son.  But, God the Father has chosen each of us as His adopted children.  We were intentionally selected to be in His family. We are each special to Him.  He does not care that we are not perfect, He does not care how we look, He simply loves us unconditionally just as we are.

So, when the world starts closing in around us, whispering in our ear that we just are not enough, that we do not measure up, that is when we need to stand tall, lift our eyes and proclaim that we ARE enough.  Our importance lies not in what we think of ourselves, it lays in what God thinks of us; and, He thinks we are wonderful – so wonderful that we are worth dying for. “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5:8 New Living Translation)

For me, this all speaks to the fact that we should not allow anyone or anything to cause doubt about our value.  We should never doubt that there is meaning to our life – a special meaning for our existence – a purpose for our being.  Jesus sacrificed it all for that purpose.  

Our strength should always be that we know we are valuable to God.

Written by Karran Martin – April 14, 2019