I once read an article about the longevity of people who made it into their 90s. There was one quote that stuck with me because it disturbed me. One of the elderly gentleman interviewed was asked the meaning of life. His response was, “Don’t try to figure it all out.” WHAT? Don’t try to figure it all out because we can’t, or we shouldn’t, or no one has the answers, so don’t even try? This guy had lived so many years, and that’s the advice he has to give? Don’t try to figure it all out? So, we should just let life happen, come what may. Great advice…. not!
I think part of what makes life spectacular is the mystery of it. Just because we don’t have all the answers, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to find some. We’ll never have all the answers because if we could figure everything out, God wouldn’t be God anymore. However, He gave us a mind and He wants us to use it. We can use our minds for His glory! The more we learn, the more we can exclaim, “God made it this way, and isn’t it marvelous?”
In my early 20s, I wasn’t a Christian, and life seemed meaningless. What was the point? Were we really just a product of some random Big Bang, and all the pieces of the life just chaotically fell together perfectly to create life on Earth? Yeah, right! Like I am going to believe that? No. Intrinsically, I knew that wasn’t true. So, if life was more than what met the eye, than what is it?
In college, I met a man who told me about Jesus. He told me, “No one will ever love you like your Heavenly Father loves you.” Matter of fact, he wrote that inside the pages of a Bible and gave it to me. He said read the Book of John. This was an anathema to me. I was told in college and from others I met along the way, that Christianity was a fairy tale, and believing in Jesus was like believing in Santa Claus. Read the Bible? No way!
But something inside me resonated when this guy told me how God loved me. Deep down inside, even though I didn’t acknowledge it, I wanted to be loved. I figured I had nothing to loose by reading John. As I read it, something inside me clicked. I just knew this was truth.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1: 1-4, ESV)
I kept reading and eventually began to weep. I finally found what my heart was looking for, and I was overcome with emotion.
Since then, I’ve been continually learning about God, Jesus, the Bible, and the Christian faith. It’s been over 25 years now, and I am still learning, now working on a Master’s degree. To answer the man who made it into his 90s and didn’t try to figure it out, I would say, “It’s never too late to try to figure it out. Let me show you how.”
