the meaning of life for me at this time

Tim’s dad sent an interesting email today. He knew I’d be unable to resist expressing my views. Here’s how he introduced the subject:

“A schoolmate of mine, now a professor in Texas, wrote and asked me to respond to the question, ‘What is the meaning of life as you have thus far experienced it?’”

Dad H. shared his response and asked me for mine. Below is my answer – Warning: contains explicit religious beliefs.

Hello, Dear Father-in-Law,

I shall make an attempt. I appreciate your answers. Probably if we each had more time, we’d condense our answers, but we’re doing okay with these musings, right?

The Meaning of Life, as I have thus far experienced it, as of today…

Lately I’m inclined to say life’s meaning can be summed up for me by and in a person, Jesus Christ. I recognize that his name means different things to different people. It’s a swear word for many.

For me, though never a swear word, the name used to mean something rather different than it does today. I considered it a badge of honor that I put on to signify belonging to the only group that God could use, to the people who rose above the rest of humanity’s masses. I’d once been someone who chose to sin, but now, with Christ’s name as my badge, I could choose not to. I ran with the winners, the elite… You get the picture.

Through the process of seeking to understand the Bible and theology, today I have a perspective that goes along with the saying, “The ground is level at the foot of the cross.” (I don’t think that’s in the Bible, though it might be.) It truly gives life meaning for me to look at Jesus and see what I think was his purpose, to represent God exactly. There he hung, on the cross, for me and for everybody else. No two ways about it. God, the creator I believe in and worship, is about mercy as much as (even more than?) justice. I’ve come to understand the only “unforgivable sin” to be ultimately/intentionally rejecting this God and this picture of his love.

With this view, I am blessed anew each day. Not that I don’t see myself rejecting and rebelling against God and his ways on a daily basis. But I’ve come to see that I don’t want to reject him. That’s what Jesus asked Peter three times: “Do you love me?” Like the apostle, I recognize, whenever it hits me in the forehead again, that I’m sinful, but by now it’s, yeah, duh, like everyone else is. I accept the situation. I see that grace abounds and mercy triumphs and, ultimately, I believe, I’ll be transformed in the age to come into someone who will be able to live as I want to, free from these flaws that still stain my life and mind, that I strive, even now, to resist.

So what means most to me is to remember who God is, what he’s about, and that his centerpiece to the whole of creation and history is his son, the Messiah, who died and rose, because everyone had and has gone astray. I think God brings like-minded (belief-holding) individuals together to worship and serve him by reaching out whenever possible to those in need and by seeking to be persons who encourage other persons to believe in Jesus Christ and to keep believing, “all the way home”…But not in a haughty way, rather in a manner that recognizes we’re in this together, made of the same stuff. I’m my own worst enemy, and so are you and everybody, just because we each face the flaws of sin and futility. For now, anyway. Something better’s coming, and that means a lot. Maybe everything, though I could be wrong…

Anyone else wish to give your take on life’s meaning?