Hope or No Hope?

I've read "John F Kennedy's" gripping "An Ode to Death" many times since I first saw it on a story carnival. Based on other posts and comments on that blog, this piece represents many persons' dark searching and lonely lostness. Its author's pain and questioning following a young woman's suicide. Several times commenters here at Thinking Christian have said they're comfortable with the thought that there is no ultimate meaning, no final direction or purpose to the universe. I don't question their statements; but expressions like this person's make it clear that's not the case for everybody.

So what does a Christian say to someone so alone and directionless, to someone who wishes life had an exit button? I'm aware that this author has not asked for my opinion, yet he has put his feelings out on the web, in a public place, and I trust it's not inappropriate to explore some possible responses; if not for him, then for others he may represent.

For he raises some good questions.

"So what matters then in the end? ... Would it matter to me in the end where I am burnt, dust to dust and ashes to ashes? ... Would anything matter to me when I finally sleep?"

...

"What is the purpose, the aim the final destination of my life?

"My death?

"That is? My life ends? Why then try so hard! Why study or work or amass wealth or love some when at the end I am going to be all alone, just me myself and I, stripped of all that I earned owned possessed and isolated of all whom I loved? Why why and why!"

What indeed matters in the long run? It seems to me--though just a few moments ago I said I wouldn't question their statements--that those who doubt God would have to recognize that such questions are unanswerable apart from God. How could anything matter in the long run, with no long run for us to face? We can leave a posterity on earth, and a legacy of our creative contributions, but that only pushes back the question for some unknown but finite number of generations. The question doesn't go away that way. Further, it doesn't answer, "What about my future, my purpose?"

From the Biblical perspective, though, the answer is not difficult: the meaningless metaphysics of materialism, besides being annoying alliteration, is also a lie. There is an ultimate purpose, defined and determined for us by an eternal loving God who created us in his image. What we do on earth matters, even long after the earth passes away in fire or ice, for we were made for eternity. We can know this God and love him, and we can love our eternal fellow humans. This is not emptiness. This is fulfillment forever.

But "John F Kennedy" (who also goes by "raving lunatic") has other questions besides:

"Why do I have this power to question the Lord when I am deprived of the ability to make him answer me! Why do I feel joy and pain when I am nothing but a puppet on this vast stage who can do little if his creator chose to end his part and pull his string?"

Why, indeed, is it so hard to get the answers we want from God? Here I must tread even more carefully, for it would be presumptuous to assume anything of this questioner. He has not revealed enough of his quest, in posts that I have read, to tell us how he has (or has not) carried out his search.

I affirm him for the search. If I had the chance, I would urge him to look where the answers may be found. The Bible is remarkably honest about the mysteries of life's pain. It doesn't paper over a thing. The book of Job is famous for its treatment of one man's misery, a man who trusted God while everything fell apart around him. We as readers are offered a heaven's-eye explanation for his pain, but Job never gets one. He gets a clear vision of God instead--and recognizes that it is enough. God is God, and Job trusts him.

Job was an early writing--some scholars say the earliest of the entire Bible. We know more answers now than he was privileged to have. We know that Jesus Christ shared in our humanity, including its temptations and pains; that God is not aloof and uninvolved. When my cousin was murdered, part of our true consolation was knowing that even God has experienced the unjust, violent death of a Son. We know, too, that God redeems our pain: he "keeps our tears in a bottle." We know that he uses it to build our souls. We know that he sacrificed himself to redeem us, to free us from the ultimate misery of eternal death.

This gives us meaning and hope just because it is true. Because it is true, it is not something we can manipulate. We have to come to God on his terms. But they are good terms, terms we can live up to if we will set aside our pride and insistence on doing things our own way. The fundamental thing, though it is no small thing, is to believe in him. There are indeed answers...

Posted: Mon - August 13, 2007 at 09:54 PM |

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Hope or No Hope?

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson