Chaplain's Corner

The search for meaning in life is a core aspect of what it means to be a spiritual being. It is one of the things that sets us apart from the rest of living things. A stalk of corn does not contemplate the meaning of life. A horse doesn’t ponder what life is all about, but I do and you do for this is part of what it means to be human. We contemplate and strive to find the “WHY?” of life itself.

Our search takes us in many directions. The ancient book of Ecclesiastes is essentially all about our search for meaning. “What is our purpose?”; “Why are we hear?” and “What are our duties and obligations?” These are the questions the writer delved into. Of course this wasn’t the first or the last quest for the answer to this important question. Philosophers of every age have written, argued and debated the question. The debate rages on and will until the end of time.

Many answers have been proposed. Some giving our existence deep and sacred meaning and others concluding that our existence is absolutely meaningless, devoid of purpose. Many times the pursuit ends in discouragement, disillusionment and despair. Many abandon the pursuit after a while, pushing the question to the “back burner” of their mind and just live. Others become consumed with the question and some have been ruined by the pursuit altogether.

Some who chose a more pragmatic and hedonistic approach simply concluding that life is all about finding as much happiness as one can. Thus companies like the Schlitz Brewing Co. come up with has add campaigns with tag lines like “You only go around once in life: Go for all the gusto you can.” But for many of us, this self-absorbed pursuit of please seems profoundly below the nobility of our race. We have seen “gusto” pursuers whose lives are left in ruin by this all out pursuit of pleasure.

We as humans have a curious capacity to continue the pursuit for meaning. It is a sort of spiritual insatiability. We will try this, then try that and continue the search sometimes until we die. Now there is one thing that I have learned about this search. We must do it for ourselves. I cannot provide you with the meaning of your life. I may share what I have found that gives my life meaning, but this is a very, very personal matter, it is one of the great tasks of our lives. Every one of us may cycle through disappointment, disillusionment and despair numerous time until we discover what it is that gives life meaning. Unfortunately, there are many who finish their lives without ever finding a satisfying answer to these questions.

My own search has led me in a variety of directions: I have looked to my wife and children to give my life ultimate meaning; I have looked to my profession to give my live ultimate meaning; and I have looked to rigorous religious obedience to give my life meaning. In each of these pursuits I have come to the end disappointed, disillusioned and despairing. These three pursuits have consumed many of my 64 years.

Recently, broken and without the energy to try much more, I have begun to find soul satisfaction in a most surprising turn. In my disgust with everything around me that proved so empty, in my desperate grasping at things that only evaporated in my hands, I started to meditate on a verse so common, so familiar, so widely known that it seemed almost silly to me. But for a number of years now, when I am disappointed, disgusted, disillusioned, or despairing I repeat the first sentence of the 23rd Psalm. “The Lord is my shepherd, I SHALL NOT WANT.” I am beginning to find the Lord himself to be the meaning of my life.