Giving Meaning to Life

“Meaningless!
Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is
meaningless. What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the
sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.” (Ecclesiastes
1:2-4)

The basic
question that the writer of Ecclesiastes seeks to answer is, “Is there any
meaning to the time that I spend in this world?”   We put on a man’s tombstone that he was born
on a certain date and that he died on a certain date.  Between these two points in time we live our
lives.  

A common
refrain echoed in Ecclesiastes is that there is futility, vanity, and “nothing
new under the sun.”   If our lives begin under the sun as a cosmic accident, a
result of random collisions and mutations of inert matter, and if our ultimate
destiny is to return to the dust that bore us, there can be no purpose.

When we
cease to look “under the sun” and seek our destiny “under heaven,” we find our
purpose.  Our origin was not in a primordial soup, but in the very hands of God,
who shaped us and breathed life into us.  Our destiny is not to return to dust,
but to give honor and praise to God forever.  Under heaven we find purpose.  If
we have God as our origin and as our destiny, between those ends there is
purpose and meaning.

The writer
answers the question with a resounding “Yes!”  There is a reason for our lives.
There is a reason for our suffering, and a reason for our pain.  There is also a
reason for our joy.

Are you
living your life “under the sun” or “under heaven?”   Have you found true purpose
and meaning to life?

Can God change your life?

God has made it possible for you to know
Him, and experience an amazing change

in your own life.

Discover how you can find peace with
God.