I understand life's ultimate purpose

The purpose of life is probably one of the two or three most-often asked questions in the stillness of the bedroom, in the despair of adolescence before entering the machinery of adult life, in times of pain—separation, death, depression, loneliness—but also in times of exuberance and overflowing joy. How do you answer that overwhelming question?

One way to respond is by pointing to causes, especially those that are rooted in objective needs: poverty, the environment, education, racial justice. The list could be continued on and on. To engage ourselves in these areas does indeed give meaning, especially if it's a sustained and ongoing effort. 

Christians agree, and we do engage in trying to alleviate some of that pain. But we would not call this the meaning of life.

Another response to the question of life's purpose would be to point to relationships. Look at your parents, your spouse, your children, your friends, your colleagues, your classmates. These are the people who are around you, whom you love (or should love), relationships that you know could be so much better if you continue to work on them. If you have a spouse (or partner), the relationship with them is something that you will spend the rest of your life working on. That huge task will require endless amounts of energy and countless hours of negotiation (and, yes, will hopefully also result in more and more blissful moments, hours, and days). 

Both children and parents can be a blessing, but in virtually all cases they also provide stumbling blocks. Events or behavioral patterns from the past have to be addressed and often forgiven, and it's difficult to navigate the relationship as children mature and parents age. This takes a lot of energy and time. So much so that it sometimes seems to fill a life—and give it purpose. Add to that the ongoing effort of building, maintaining, and repairing relationships to others around you, and you can easily understand that that's certainly one of the ways for anyone to define the meaning of life: to love and be loved. 

Christians agree with that, with the one difference that we would say this is not the meaning of life but one of its outcomes.

A third way might be to point to yourself and your identity. There are as many personalities as there are people, and given that immense diversity, it's natural that we deal with our own position within this world in different ways. From the outside it looks like some people have a much easier time knowing who they are, defining their position in relation to others and their surroundings, and adapting to changes around them. Others seem to struggle much more to define who they are. And while it's true that there are vast differences in how we perceive ourselves, no one is immune to the struggle; some are simply more skilled than others at hiding their struggles. It therefore seems to be a more than adequate purpose in life to find out who you are and be sure of that identity. Since situations around us are ever-changing, this is a purpose that by definition will take all of your life. 

Christians struggle with that as well, but we don't think this is the purpose of life. Why? Because for us, the self is not at the center of everything. For us, God is at the center, and the self has its true identity only in relation to God.

Again, this doesn't mean that the actual Christians you know have conquered that struggle. Your Christian friends might be lacking a sense of identity as much as you; they may struggle with their relationships with people and in their response to the many causes that surround them. 

But independent of the actual ability or disability of many Christians to let go of ourselves as the center of the universe, the fact is that one of the very central tenets of Christianity is that the center and the very reason for the universe is God. 

Think about what that means: In the Christian worldview, the world is neither centered around you nor is it centered around impersonal principles—such as love and peace or dominance and hierarchy—but around God who created the universe as he saw fit and who continues to be actively involved in every single aspect of that universe and its inhabitants. Oddly enough, he has selected one particular group among all of his creation—human beings—as something special, and he continues to communicate with us by various means. More on that elsewhere.

So, to come back to the meaning of life: It's presumptuous for anyone to give in just a couple of sentences an answer to what philosophers, dreamers, and poets have been searching for as long as people have existed, but Christians would likely agree that the first part of an answer would have to do with focus on God. God is at the center of the Christian's universe, and therefore the Christian life strives to please him, to be at his service. I realize how shockingly subservient that must sound for anyone coming from other traditions, but bear with me for a second. In the Christian worldview, people are not in competition with God. We believe that God has created everything, including us. Just as a work of art serves the purpose of our pleasure and we use it accordingly, so God uses us. Well, kind of. Since we are not static pieces of art (and sometimes we don't even feel particularly artful), but instead living entities who think of ourselves as having a free will, we are in a much more dynamic relationship with our creator. Unlike an artwork, we can decide not to display all the marks of our maker. But if we do decide to point to our maker, we are not only displaying all of our strength and beauty, but we have found the place that we were intended for. 

To be and act like we were individually and specifically intended to be and act happens to be what we're created for. Again, it's individual and specific. We're all different, and purposefully so. To find that place where we're in harmony with what we're intended to be is what our purpose is. Well, the beginning of our purpose. What that will look like eventually is for each of us to find out.

And in the process of doing that we'll build relationships, we'll stand up for what is right, and we'll eventually find out who we specifically are.