What's the point?

Lamentations 3: 19-24/ John 3:1-15 

A teenager stares confused at his math homework, frustrated at its complexity, slams the book shut and yells… What’s the point!?!   A mother in her 20’s tries her best to console her crying baby.  Leaning her head against the wall she too begins to cry.  Is this really what I’m supposed to be doing with my life?

A 50 year old man looks out his office window- long hours and a stressful job separates him from his friends and family.  Sighing, he mumbles, there’s got to be more to life than this! A couple in their 70’s drives home from yet another funeral.  Family and friends keep leaving them behind and they each silently gaze out the window pondering the meaning of life.

What’s the point? What am I supposed to do with my life? What is the meaning of life?   We’ve all asked these questions or ones like them at some point and time or another.  Even joyous moments bring up these feelings- We saved up all year long for this family vacation- for what-to drive 15 hours and stand in line in the hot sun to see a man in a mouse suit? 

There’s got to be more to life than this… we are all searching for  the answer to this universal question…what’s really important?  We aren't alone in our search.  Many people have this void in their lives and we search diligently to find something-anything to fill it.  We fill our time with worry, anxiety, anger and resentment towards others- allowing other things and people we can’t control to occupy our thoughts. If your single- maybe you are looking to find fulfillment in a spouse.  Or if you’re married, maybe you’re looking to find confirmation of your youth and vitality in the arms of another person. Maybe we fill our time with so many small, menial, and pointless chores- over-committing our time and energy trying to distract ourselves from our real problems and giving the appearance of perfection so that we don’t have to look at our own flaws. 

Maybe for you its money- if I only had a little more money, then I would be happy.  We play the lottery, or work long hours for that raise or promotion.  But this too is a moving target.  A professor at USC discovered that “at all levels of income, the typical response is that one needs 20% more to be happy” (Richard Easterlin- Professor of Economics at University of Southern California)

We numb the pain and emptiness of life with endless streams of technology; TV shows we just cannot miss- 280 channels and nothing on.  Or if you’re like me it is the stupid game on my phone that I cannot seem to master- an hour will go by and I won’t even realize it.  The problem is, all these efforts to fill the voids in our lives is like binging on junk food- it fills you up temporarily but it never really satisfies or gives true nourishment, and after a few minutes you are hungry again.  Our priorities have gotten out of order.

We all do it.  We all allow our priorities to get out of whack.  It doesn’t really matter if you are rich or poor, how educated you are or how spiritual you are; we may try our best to focus on what’s important but we get distracted or we realize that focusing on what is not important is much easier than trying to pay attention to what really matters. We allow ourselves to get so caught up in the little things that we don’t have the time or energy for what is really important.

Nicodemus knows this all too well.  He is a well-educated, spiritual, and devout believer in God.  But, he too is searching.  Something is missing from his life, something he has been searching for in the scriptures, in books, in rituals, and rules.  Things he thought were so important but yet something is still missing. He does everything he is supposed to do and yet, he still has not found the one thing that will fill the void in his life. 

Sometimes we think of people who don’t have faith as seekers.  But we are all seekers; even the religious teachers and preachers are seekers.  We are all searching to find the one thing that is most important in this world, remove the distractions and fill that God shaped hole in our hearts. Nicodemus is doing just that, searching, but because he thinks he should know all the answers already, he goes to Jesus under cover of darkness- embarrassed by his ignorance but also determined to find the answer to the meaning of life from this man he knows is from God- Who better to ask how to fill the God shaped hole than the one who is God?

What Jesus tells him is confusing and puzzling to him though- be born again!  How in the world are we supposed to be born again?  Nicodemus is too smart for his own good- but he has book smarts not life smarts so he tries to figure out how this would be physically possible.  I can just imagine Jesus rolling his eyes and saying seriously man, come on Nick- think about what I am saying.  It isn’t a physical re-birth it is a spiritual one.  One that doesn’t just happen once at baptism or conversion; it happens every day, every time we decide to refocus our lives on what is most important: a relationship with Christ.  Jeremiah knows this too.  He tells us in this section from Lamentations that he is on this journey with us.  Even when it seems nothing is going right.  The world is falling apart and we are lost in all the distractions- God is still there; guiding us, loving us, showing us how to be found- by keeping our focus on the most important part of life- our faith.  It is what gives us hope, encouragement, security and strength to get through the all the other parts of life.  

What is the point?  What is the meaning and purpose of life?  What does God want from us?  God wants us to be on the journey to a closer relationship with Christ.  God wants us to be seekers. Even those of us who think we’ve found all the right answers. Sure there will be days when it seems a boulder is in the way.  And days when we get one of those little pesky pebbles in our shoe and it is so annoying it nearly drives us crazy but the more we fill our hearts with the important things.  The more we focus on a relationship with Christ- the more we will want to stay focused on following him and the less necessary and important the distractions in life will seem.  And praise God this isn't a one-time, use it or lose it opportunity!  Because of the endless grace of God we get a chance to start over each day- being reborn in the Holy Spirit, an opportunity to remind ourselves of the big picture, what really matters, to choose our battles and words wisely, read the words of God more closely, to be more Christ focused than the day before, to be in service in love for others more than the day before, to be more welcoming towards the stranger and more generous to the poor, and more patient with others on the road. 

I was reminded of this at least twice this week.  Tuesday night at the High School graduation- we were reminded that while we celebrate achievements- commencement is not the end but the beginning of their journey.  Then again, at Wednesday morning bible study we heard Paul’s words in 2 Timothy about not getting distracted with trivial things: stay focused on the one thing that really matters-Christ. 

We won’t get it right today and we won’t get it right any of the days after but each day we can be further along on the journey and that is what is most important for our lives and to God- that we earnestly try to move forward in our faith and be willing to follow where God is leading.  God is the only thing that will fill that void in our lives and the way we experience that is through a personal relationship with Christ.  But there’s more good news- this isn't a lonely journey.  We are all on it together (this is the point of church)- here to encourage one another, challenge each other to remove the pebbles and walk around the boulders, and cheer each other on as we cross barriers and overcome obstacles to our faith and to lead and assist those newly on the journey to stay fast and true to our commitment to follow Christ. 

That is the meaning of life.  To be on this journey we call faith, focused on the goal of loving God and loving all the others who are on this journey with us.  Are you ready to go?