When are You Most Happy?

 

When are you most happy?  What are occasions when you're most contented?  What do they all have in common?

I might be happy running in the woods, staring at a sunset or listening to choral masterpiece.  Sometimes it might be basking in the glow of some accomplishment: but that doesn't last. There's greater pleasure in performing some task well. Reveling in the mastery of some human faculty.  Or more simply: in making someone else's day.

Mostly I think I'm happiest, when I'm most self forgetful.  When I just enjoy being, without introspection.  When my focus is external to myself.

Is this just me?

What about you?

And what does this tell us about humanity?

The Important Things in Life

How can you know what's important in life?
How can you tell what really matters?

It's easy really.

Remember you're going to die.

Then ask yourself: what would I regret if I died tomorrow?

So what comes to mind?  Money, job, career, holiday, qualifications, car, education, sporting achievements?

For me it's none of these.  What matters are people. It's the friends I've lost contact with, the relationships that have broken down and  the people I haven't told how much they mean to me.  I don't think this is just me. I'd guess most people will say others are the most important things in life.  But why is this?  Is it just because I want to be remembered as a nice bloke or is there some deeper reason? Why are humans so important?

If there is no God, then this life is it. There's nothing else. When I die, what's in my bank account won't matter, but then neither will my relationships.  The best I can hope for is that people remember me as someone who was great – but that won't bother me either, if all I am is worm food.  Moreover, unless I'm someone like Alexander the Great, in a hundred years I'll be forgotten.  It will be as if I'd never existed.  So why is it that my heart tells me that relationships are more important than all else?  Maybe it's because this life isn't all there is, that when I die it's not all over, and that how I relate to people has eternal consequences.

The Bible teaches that people are made in God's image.  That death is not the end.  Therefore relationships matter.  Money, career etc. don't matter – they won't enter eternity - but people do.  And people matter.  God cares about how we treat those who bear His image.  He made us for relationships – with each other, but most importantly with Him.  And this is the relationship we tend to forget most about.  But it's the one that matters the most. It's the one that determines our eternal fate. And if I'm reconciled to my creator then I'll start to put my other relationships right.

So in light of your mortality: how will you live tomorrow?

The Meaning of Life.

What is the meaning of life? Why am I here? What is the point of life?

These are questions we all ask. Philosophers ponder them. We all long for an answer. But the question I'm asking is: why do we ask these questions?

To ask the meaning of something is to ask about its purpose. When an archaeologist finds a strange object he wonders what it was for? What is the meaning of a kettle? What is the meaning of a knife? The meaning of the kettle is to boil water and the meaning of knife is to cut something. In both cases their meaning is external to them. The creator – man – decides what the objects purpose is and the object fulfils that purpose when it does what it was designed for. Another picture might be, what is the purpose of a private in an army? He cannot see why he does what he does, risking life and limb, but the General, whose plan it is the soldier follows, has a purpose, which he hopes the soldier will accomplish. Again we see that the soldier cannot define meaning for himself amidst the chaos but it is an external agent who defines his meaning. So when we ask what is the meaning of life we are asking: for what was I made? And only our creator can tell us.

If Atheism is true, then why should we ask these questions? We are here by chance and natural selection. There is no purpose. We are nothing but specks, screaming into the darkness to be blown away by the winds of time. This is the conclusion of Nihilism. There is no God therefore there is no meaning. And yet the fact remains they wrestle with this question. We all desire meaning. Some Atheists advocates a form of existentialism where we define our own meaning. But this is nonsense. The kettle and the knife cannot decide what their purpose is. The kettle cannot cannot decide today to be a spoon. The private in the army cannot decide he finds meaning by doing his own thing. Meaning is external. So Nihilism is right. If there is no God then there is no meaning. But in stating that they must have asked the question.

So why do we desire meaning?

If Athesim is true then there is no meaning and it makes no sense to ask about it, think about it or worry about it. We should live like animals, following our instincts to try and pass on our genes. We shouldn't waste time and energy with such questions: they don't help us survive. In fact they could be detrimental – because if there is no great purpose in life why bother even to pass on my genes? Why make the world a better place for my children? Why help humanity or nature to survive? We're all dust. No one will notice if we're gone. The universe will march on in indifference if humanity should cease to look on it. In short, to ask why we are here does not have any evolutionary advantage, so can only be explained as an accidental by-product of conciousness. This is not explanation but a mere just-so story and doesn't really satisfy. The same as life without meaning doesn't satisfy. Instead, I think, a better explanation is that we were indeed created.

When we ask the question: what is the meaning of life? It is a tacit admission that deep down we know that we are created even if we deny it to ourselves. If there is a creator it makes sense that we should want to know why He made us. It makes sense that He should place it in our being to want to know why he made us. It makes sense to ask the question - why is there meaning - as there is the possibility of an answer even if we may not like it.