MEANING OF LIFE

| Sermon Thought by PKD Lee |

Ecclesiastes 4:4-8

The author of Ecclesiastes expressed his midlife crisis on the meaninglessness of the world, which ever way you looked at it. If the world is meaningless, what motivates us to anything with our life?

Trying to make sense of their life, most people turn back to the world, as the pursuits of the world seems to give a sort of meaning to life, even if it be transient. Like the author says, we enrich ourselves, only to leave the wealth to others. Also, the pursuit of wealth leads us into all kinds of sin in our lives, as we find it difficult to show love to those we are competing with.

In fact, James 4:1-4 says that it leads to a breakdown of relationships and unhappiness to us. Is there an alternative? Yes, we change our perspective as told to us in Romans 12:2 and take on the perspective of the kingdom of God. Whatever I am doing is on behalf of the kingdom of God.

Essentially the kingdom life has two aspects – love for Yahweh and live for mankind. So, our motivations come from here – love for God and love for man. The question we ask is what is the role of my work, or whatever activity I am involved in in furthering the needs of the kingdom of God. The other question we ask is how does what I am doing help mankind live better and a more wholesome life.

When we reorient our lives, we move from the temporary to the eternal and so the work we do is eternal and does not lead to midlife crisis. Interestingly, as the wealth in the world increases, and the need to work reduces, the midlife crisis is hitting people much earlier than it used to, and so the need to find a meaning in our life is more urgent.

What are the motivations in your life?