What is the path to personal meaning?

Vanessa Chaput, age twenty-four, was jogging recently on a paved trail near a highway and residential homes in Yukon, Canada. Her German Shepard Luna was with her. Suddenly, she was attacked by three grizzly bears. She said later that the largest one “took my head in its mouth, and I ended up on the ground.” In that moment she thought, “I’m not ready to leave my daughter and my husband,” so she just “went into survival mode,” refusing to give in to the massive animal. The bear suddenly let go of her head, perhaps because her hair clip exploded in its mouth. Luna’s barking may also have scared the bear away.

She was hospitalized for ten days, receiving more than thirty stitches on her head, back, arm, and ear. She has a broken arm as well. “I am very shocked at how lucky I am,” she says. “I’m extremely thankful that God was watching over me that day.”

“Man cannot live without meaning”

Vanessa’s refusal to die and leave her daughter and husband powerfully illustrates Nietzsche’s reflection I quoted earlier this week: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Ideas change the world, for good or for bad.

As examples of the latter:

• The Paris Olympics were successful in large part because 45,000 police, 10,000 soldiers, and 22,000 private security guards protected the games from terrorists driven by jihadist ideology.
• The teenage terrorists who allegedly targeted as many as twenty thousand Taylor Swift fans in Austria were motivated by the same resurgent ISIS ideology now threatening the West.
• China’s autocratic leader, Xi Jinping, is enabling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in order to vindicate Marxist doctrine.
• Israel’s jihadist opponents are motivated by an ideology that paints the Jewish state as the enemy of Islam.

On the positive side, Arthur Brooks writes in the Atlantic that we can find meaning in life through coherence (how the events of our lives fit together), purpose (having goals and direction), and significance (a sense of our inherent value).

As the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius advised:

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. Therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

Pastor and author Paul Powell likewise noted:

If we are the illegitimate offspring of thoughtless order, then we have no identity and life has no meaning. However, if we have been created by God, then we have little problem with knowing who we are. Here is a person created in the image of God and for fellowship with God.

He then quoted Albert Camus: “Here is what frightens me: to see the sense of this life dissipated. To see our reason for existence disappear. That is what is intolerable. Man cannot live without meaning.”

How do we find it?

Three paths to finding personal meaning

One: Acknowledge our need for divine wisdom

David reported: “God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God” (Psalm 53:2). What was the result? “They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one” (v. 3). Paul echoed the same: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

This means that you and I need wisdom beyond our fallen minds. The first step to finding it is seeking it no matter our circumstances. Consider this resolution: “On my best day, may I remember that I still need God as desperately as I did on my worst day.”

Two: Submit to the Spirit

My wife framed this promise for me years ago, and I have it on my desk where I can see it today: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). When we submit to the Spirit, we can be led by the Spirit (John 16:13).

Consequently, I invite you to join me in praying these words from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer: “Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will.”

Three: Live by biblical truth

Charles Spurgeon said, “The word of God is the anvil upon which the opinions of men are smashed.” As British philosopher J. V. Langmead Casserley observed, we do not break God’s commandments—we break ourselves on them.

Part of living by Scripture is persuading others to do the same (1 Peter 3:15). George Orwell noted, “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” Athanasius (died AD 373) resolved: “If the world is against truth, then I am against the world.”

In No God But God, Os Guinness writes:

“As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has reminded us, just as a shout in the mountain can start an avalanche, so a word or stand for truth that does God’s work in God’s way in God’s time can have an incalculable effect.”

How will you “stand for truth” today?

NOTE: Every night before we sleep, we face a choice: replay the day’s stress or embrace God’s wisdom. . . and the peace that comes with it. With Wisdom Matters, the new 365-evening devotional by Janet Denison, you can end your day focusing on God’s word and a verse of Scripture that will guide you the next day. Get your copy of Wisdom Matters today.

Wednesday news to know:

• Only Gaza ceasefire will delay retaliation, say Iranian officials
• FBI probes claim Iran hacked Trump campaign
• Russia strikes back at Ukrainian forces in Kursk region
• Starbucks ousts CEO, names Chipotle boss as replacement
• On this day in 1935: FDR signs Social Security Act

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The Christian truth is attractive and persuasive because it responds to humanity’s deepest needs.” —Pope Francis

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An encouraging path to empowering life purpose

I need to begin with a confession: the Paris Olympics began without me.

I didn’t watch the opening ceremonies live (though I had to respond later to their awful parody of The Last Supper). I ignored the first few days of competition since I didn’t know much about the athletes or their events.

But over time, I was drawn in. By last Saturday, I was cheering as Steph Curry flung long-range daggers to lead the US men’s basketball team to gold. I was a proud American as our women’s national teams won nail-biters to secure gold in soccer and basketball.

US gymnast Simone Biles cemented her Greatest Of All Time status. Divers contorted their bodies in ways that seemed impossible; runners trained for years, only to win or lose by thousandths of a second; athletes exhibited selfless and inspiring sportsmanship.

Yesterday’s closing ceremonies included the traditional handoff to the next Olympic host city, in this case Los Angeles in 2028. But in true Hollywood fashion, Tom Cruise performed a “jaw-dropping stunt” by diving from the top of Stade de France to the stage, drove the Olympic flag via motorcycle into a waiting airplane, went skydiving with it into Los Angeles, and transformed the “HOLLYWOOD” sign to include the Olympic rings.

More than ten thousand athletes came to the Paris Olympics from 206 delegations. Each of them had a purpose that motivated the rigorous training and sacrificial discipline that brought them there.

As Friedrich Nietzsche observed, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

How far would your DNA stretch?

According to scientists, the annual Perseid meteor shower peaked early this morning. Here’s the problem: I went outside around 4:20 am, spent sixty seconds staring into the night sky, and saw no meteors flashing by. Now I am free to conclude that the whole thing is a hoax, or I can admit that astronomers know more about the universe than I do and assume that I simply needed more patience. My presuppositions will determine the way I interpret my experience.

From bodies in the heavens to ours on earth: I was shocked to read that if the DNA in my body could be unwound and linked together, it would stretch for 110 billion miles. Having no way to verify personally what seems a ludicrous assertion, once again I am forced to make a presuppositional decision.

Here’s how these stories relate to today’s theme: finding your “why to live” is directly connected to your beliefs regarding life itself. If you think you are the intended creation of a Father who loves you, you’ll see yourself through a prism of purposeful significance. If, however, you think you are the unintended descendent of ancient microbes and that humans developed without God (a belief more popular than ever before), you’ll likely agree with a statement I saw graffitied on an overpass recently: “Live Love Die.”

A society as secularized as ours should not be shocked by the mental health crisis our teenagers are experiencing, a worsening epidemic of distress tied to political turmoil and social isolation. Or by our declining birth rate due in large part to a loss of meaning, prompting many young adults to forego childbearing.

Sir Richard Steele (1672–1729) diagnosed our culture as well as his own:

“People spend their lives in the service of their passions instead of employing their passions in the service of their lives.”

The latter illumines a path to purpose that enlivens our spirits and empowers our cultural influence.

“The joy and peace of the divine life”

I was reading through Jeremiah recently and was stopped by God’s statement to his people: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3). Likewise, as Jesus prayed in Gethsemane for his followers, he noted that his Father “loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23). “Even as” could be translated “to the same degree.”

Think of it: the God of the universe loves you as much as he loves his own Son.

Is this because you and I are worthy of such love? To the contrary, it is because “God is love” (1 John 4:8, my emphasis). He loves us because he must love us. His unchanging character demands it (Malachi 3:6).

Such love empowers us to live with transcendent purpose. We are free to serve others, however they respond to us, because we have no need to be served. We are free to love others, whether they love us or not, because we know that we are loved unconditionally by our Father.

Henri Nouwen observed:

The state of the world suggests to me the urgent need for a spirituality that takes the end things very seriously, not a spirituality of withdrawal, nor of blindness to the powers of the world, but a spirituality that allows us to live in this world without belonging to it, a spirituality that allows us to take the joy and peace of the divine life even when we are surrounded by the powers and principalities of evil, death, and destruction.

Such “spirituality” is available to you right now.

“In a week where my faith was tried”

US track and field superstar Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone regularly writes on Instagram about her faith in Christ. Apfter she broke her own world record in winning her second Olympic gold medal in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, she testified: “In a week where my faith was tried, my peace wavered, and the weight of the world began to descend, God was beyond gracious.”

Then she quoted Psalm 115:1: “Not to us, O Lᴏʀᴅ, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”

Why do you need to claim this “steadfast love” today?

Monday news to know:

• Zelensky confirms Ukrainian troops are fighting inside Russian territory
• Trump campaign says it was hacked, blames Iran
• Israel orders more Gaza evacuations after school shelter attack kills scores
• Thousands flee wildfires raging near Athens as children’s hospital evacuated
• On this day in 1990: skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex discovered

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“What gives me the most hope every day is God’s grace; knowing that his grace is going to give me the strength for whatever I face, knowing that nothing is a surprise to God.” —Rick Warren

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Former President Donald Trump did a live interview last night with Elon Musk on X. Though the event was plagued with technical difficulties, more than one million people listened to their wide-ranging conversation on immigration, inflation, education, and the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life. The interview was part of Musk’s $160 million push to win eight hundred thousand voters in battleground states for Mr. Trump.

Amid the political fervor of our day, here’s a different approach: Omena, a small town in northern Michigan, just elected a horse as their mayor. This is news because the office has only been held by a dog in the past, except for one time when a cat won the election.

One resident explained their political culture: “All politics are stupid. But at least we’re having fun with it, and we’re still friends at the end of the day.”

“The equal of every one of you”

Omena’s political disclaimer notwithstanding, America was birthed by a brilliant political process that declared our independence and forged our republic. And it was nearly destroyed by a subversive political process that failed our ideals and threatened our nation.

In The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, acclaimed historian Erik Larson tells the gripping story of events and people that led to our nation’s bloodiest conflict. In brief, the South saw the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as the end of slavery and resolved to secede from the Union in response. For example, the Charlotte Mercury urged that if Mr. Lincoln won, every slaveholding state should secede immediately.

It’s hard for us to understand today how fervently some in the South defended the institution of slavery. Going back to our beginnings, some tragically viewed Africans and indigenous Americans as inherently inferior races. With regard to the latter, the settlement of their land by Europeans was seen as a step toward their education and cultural advancement. With regard to the former, many claimed that they were better off enslaved to Europeans and white colonists.

For example, James Clement Furman, a prominent Baptist minister and first president of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, published an open paper on November 22, 1860, that encapsulated the South’s great fear if slavery were to be abolished: “Then every negro in South Carolina and every other Southern State will be his own master; nay, more than that, will be the equal of every one of you.”

Larson quotes an Atlanta newspaper that similarly warned before the Civil War: “We regard every man in our midst an enemy to the institutions of the South who does not boldly declare that he or she believes African slavery to be a social, moral, and political blessing.”

“Hope to the world for all future time”

By contrast, many in the North saw Mr. Lincoln’s election over more strident abolitionists as a step toward moderation and away from civil war. As Larson writes, “At no time had he threatened to abolish slavery or emancipate the millions of enslaved men and women who populated the plantations of the South.”

However, many secession advocates in the South claimed just the opposite. As a result, in the few Southern states where his name was included on the ballot, he garnered few votes. In Virginia, he received just over 1 percent; Kentucky, the state of his birth, gave him less than 1 percent.

Nonetheless, Mr. Lincoln was elected our sixteenth president and soon began making his way to Washington, DC, for his inauguration. Along the way, he stopped in Philadelphia, where our Declaration of Independence was signed.

There he identified the promise that “all should have an equal chance” (his emphasis) as “the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence.” According to Mr. Lincoln, this sentiment “gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time.”

Less than six weeks after his inauguration, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Civil War was on.

“Sojourners and exiles”

The declaration that “all men are created equal” does indeed give “hope to the world for all future time.” It sounds the death knell to communism, monarchy, autocracy, theocracy, and all other forms of political oppression. But the underlying forces that threatened it in the run-up to the Civil War are still with us.

What Nietzsche called the “will to power” is still the foundational drive of fallen humanity. We seek to be our own god (Genesis 3:5) by asserting our superiority and authority over others on the basis of their race, gender, economic status, or a multitude of other factors.

This “will” does not die when we trust in Christ. On the contrary, we must choose every day to submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). If we do not, it’s because we still seek to be our own god, to use God and others as a means to our ends.

Here’s the way forward:

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11).

Let’s take these steps today:

• Claim the fact that we are God’s “beloved,” loved unconditionally by our Father. We are free to serve others whether or not they serve us because our personal worth is guaranteed by our Lord.
• Live as “sojourners and exiles” passing through this temporary world on the way to our heavenly home. Use temporal means to serve eternal souls.
• Choose to “abstain from the passions of the flesh” by remembering that they “wage war against [our] soul” and always cost us more than they pay.

When we make these steps our lifestyle, we defeat the “will to power” and point the way to a politics of commonality, community, and unity.

Is there a greater imperative in our broken culture today?

Tuesday news to know:

• 4-magnitude earthquake strikes near Los Angeles
• Russia widens evacuations to second border region after Ukraine offensive
• Defense secretary orders submarine to Middle East, accelerates arrival of strike group ahead of anticipated Iran attack
• US officials to visit China for economic talks as trade tensions rise
• On this day in 1961: Berlin is divided

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The measure of love is to love without measuring.” —St. Augustine

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