Meaning-less to Meaning-full

In my annual journey through the Bible I come this morning to Ecclesiastes that starts, ‘Meaningless! Meaningless!…Utterly Meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’

Wise King Solomon was also very rich. He’s had everything – education, drink, entertainment, sex, possessions, work, pleasure… His conclusion? It’s all meaning-less.

How do we move from meaning-less to meaning-full?

Yesterday I met Bob who’s in his 80s. Bob’s daughter, Claire, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She’s having chemotherapy now and will have surgery later in the year. Bob has had cancer; his brother has cancer…

Yesterday I heard from Kim. Kim’s really worried about her friend Rachel who’s being treated in an eating disorder unit. Rachel’s in a very dark place; she’s been in the unit for some time and is unlikely to come out in the foreseeable future. Kim knows what it’s like; she’s suffered from and with an eating disorder herself for many years.

How do Bob, Claire, Kim and Rachel see that life isn’t meaning-less but is meaning-full?

Yesterday I also heard from Caroline. Caroline was part of a church youth group we ran many years ago. She was in our netball team; we went camping; we did church. If you had asked me then I would have said that what we taught and what we did was most important…

Of our time in that youth group Caroline says: ‘I think you did a great job of showing me Jesus’.

Musing… Many today, like Solomon, seek to make life meaning-full with possessions, pleasure, beauty, good health, money, freedom… or friends and family… or religion and church… but find it to be meaning-less.

I have found meaning in discovering, encountering and living with Jesus. He understands me and walks alongside me in the toughest times. He cares, gives courage and brings hope. My faith and experience, confirmed by many friends – including Bob, Kim and Caroline – is that Jesus makes a meaning-less life meaning-full.