What is the Meaning of Life?
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Psalm 42:1, 2
How does one find fulfillment in life? Human nature causes us to seek meaning for our lives. We want our lives to matter, to make a difference, to count for something. But how do we find fulfillment?
In the fourth century, the Christian bishop of a small town called Hippo wrote a reflection on the meaning of life. Augustine’s Confessions was to become an influential work of theological reflection and autobiography. This brilliant writing articulated Augustine’s own internal struggle to find meaning in life. As a young man, he had looked for meaning in all the usual places. He sought pleasure but found it fleeting. He sought fame and celebrity but did not find it satisfying. The quest for truth captivated him, but he found truth elusive. Even philosophy did not give him the depth of meaning he sought. Finally, however, Augustine realized that only one thing fully satisfies. Our hearts will always be restless until they find their rest in God!
All the things in which we ordinarily seek meaning are outside ourselves: pleasure, truth, beauty, social relations. Augustine recognized that all these objects of our striving can never fully complete us. They always leave us empty and wanting more. Why does God alone satisfy the human spirit? It is because God has made us in his image and likeness! We long for a relationship with our Creator, though this desire often masquerades as the longing for wealth, applause, or pleasure. David captured this desire in Psalm 42 when he said that our souls thirst for God as a deer pants for flowing streams.
How do we find meaning and satisfaction? The answer, as Augustine discovered, is the love of God. We are created to love God. The best approach is to see the things of this life as God’s gifts to lead us closer to him. We appreciate and use the things of this world, but we love and serve God alone. We love others because they too are made by God. To love our neighbor is a way of expressing our love for God.
Augustine believed that the Christian life would always be one of struggle against the self. We tend to love ourselves and seek to gratify ourselves. To love God and others instead of ourselves goes against our sinful nature. But it turns out to be the only way to find true meaning in life.