Balancing the meaningless and the eternal

My feelings lately echo the author of Ecclesiastes 1:2 (NLT):

“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

Or as The Voice version states, life is fleeting, like a passing mist.

At some point in our lives we all struggle for meaning. In our jobs, in our roles as parents, in our marriages, in our personal lives. There’s got to be more. There’s got to be something I’m missing. There’s got to be a reason for all of this and a rhyme to the madness that surrounds.

I’ve shied away from writing for quite some time. My last real blog post was in January and centered around surrendering to Christ more fully this year.

I’ve learned and continue to learn that if you invite Christ into spaces of your life that scare you or corners you’d rather no one else see, if you ask Him to brighten up the dark spots and take over when you want to learn more or be pushed in your life and in your faith, He’ll show up. And it’s never easy or convenient. It’s hard and it’s messy and it’s usually heart-breaking in a way that causes you to cry out and turn your heart back to Him in a way you didn’t know you could or should.

It’s hard. It’s devastating. It’s beautiful. It’s necessary. The heart work is the hard work.

That’s where I think I’ve been for the last six months. For the last three years, really. I invited God in to show up and disrupt. I’ve asked Him over and over to turn my wandering heart back to Him and remind me that the hardships and longings of this life are as fleeting as the material possessions I find myself striving after.

So how do we find meaning in a world that is so fleeting? By remembering we aren’t home yet. C.S. Lewis so wisely said: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

We weren’t made for this world, friends. We weren’t made for highlighting our lives on social media. We weren’t made for keeping up with what our neighbors are doing or owning the latest vehicle or striving to make that extra dollar. Those things won’t satisfy. I say that for myself as much as I do for anyone reading this. This world won’t fill the void that will be present in our hearts and in our minds until we find our way back Home to where we belong and to where that gnawing ache will finally be relieved.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe we’re created to love and laugh and find joy in this world. But if that’s our sole aim, with our only plan being to gather as much stuff and affluence and money as we can before we die, then I think we’ve missed the point.

This life is short and then we’ll be Home. Where I once placed value on the number of people I could reach online, I’ve started to turn to the number of people I can sit down and have a heart-to-heart with. I’m learning and relearning the reality that there’s more than what the world offers. I’m learning and relearning that the right path is the hard one that I often stray from and lose and must fight and search to find my way back to. It’s hard.

I’m learning and relearning that no matter how I fail or how I stray or how wrong I am in the choices I make and the attitude I have, Jesus is still there, holding out His hand and inviting me back to walk with Him on this journey towards Home.

As I struggle to balance the “meaningless” and the eternal and find peace with the devastating state of our world and the unbearable hardships thrust on those I hold dear, I’m reminded daily of God’s goodness and the hope we can find if we take the time to look.