The Meaning of Life

Posted by Andrea

Read Psalm 135

Early this summer, the valley was treated to a rare and wonderful thunderstorm that rolled in out of nowhere. One minute I was arm wrestling with the lawn mower (it was winning), the next minute I was dodging giant raindrops to save my cell phone before hunkering down indoors.

The news station reported heavy rain, lightning strikes and tornado sightings.
I love a good storm, so I stood at the window and watched the rain coming hard and fast and horizontal from the north as the newsman said to stay away from windows. The wind shoved our neighbor's giant Poplar trees to unnatural angles. My poor lounge chair endured the onslaught, dripping, shaking, but not moving. Lighting streaked across the sky and thunder rattled the atmosphere. My neighbor and I waved at one another as we watched the storm tumble around us from behind our respective windows.



Thunder storms remind me of the almost hurricane that blew through Virginia when I was in college, the black sky over Clearwater, Florida the summer a friend got married, and Paris the day we stowed our raincoats securely in a locker at the train station then got trounced by a French downpour. Nothing quite like this had ever powered through my own back yard though.

My son hid under the pillows on my bed and covered his ears while I inventoried nature's motivation and a bird careened for cover. Nature has no motivation for what it does. It simply does what it was made to do. I imagine that a few days or weeks before the storm, lightning and thunder did not sit down over coffee and discuss exactly how one would flash and the other would rumble. Neither of them brought in rainclouds on a conference call to determine it’s roll in the production. Lightning didn’t wake up that morning, check itself in the mirror and wonder if it was going to be good enough. Thunder did not wonder on its drive into work why he was doing this.

The LORD makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
Psalm 135:7

And the storm obeys without question, resistance or argument because that’s what God made it for. Even in it's fury, nature cannot help but reflect the power of the Creator.

But people are different. We and the storm share a Creator, yet daily, we choose to do things that do not reflect His glory. We over eat; we loose our cool; we hold grudges; we yearn for the things of this world. We fail to fulfill our purpose day in and day out. Millions bought the book Purpose Driven Life in an effort to find meaning in life, but Solomon summed it up in a sentence:
"Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man"
Ecc. 12:13.

We were not made to live day in and day out missing what we were made for. No other creation seeks their purpose and struggles with feeling inadequate. No other creation says, "sure, it's easy to say 'fear God and keep His commandments,' but what does that look like on a practical level?" No other creation devours self help novels books like they were created to eat them. No other creation wonders if they are doing it right.

God didn't make us to wonder. We started wondering when the tempter started whispering sweet nothings in the garden, and we haven't stopped. Why do we wonder at all, I wonder. Because we forget what the One who made us is capable of.

Look around you today and remember who you serve. Remember your purpose. Remember what you were made for and remember

My Savior, He can move the mountains,
My God is Mighty to save,
He is Mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave. *


*Mighty to Save by Hillsong United