Belief in God can help us find a purpose in life that we are currently lacking – David J Nixon – The Scotsman

Have you ever wondered if life has a purpose?

Although we live at a time of unparalleled safety, comfort and opportunity, the cultural air that we breathe is heavy with the musk of emptiness and flatness. Weve even had to give it a name: ennui. These are symptoms of a deeper problem: a spiritual crisis of meaninglessness.

Our secular society has discovered the hard way that a world without God is a world without purpose. Were no longer pilgrims on the road to a destination, but wanderers on a never ending journey. Were still avid consumers of stories, but weve stopped believing that there is a divine Author who brings significance to the story of our lives. Thats why atheist Noah Yuval Harari can write in his best-selling book Sapiens that life has no meaning; there are only the stories that we invent to make sense of our otherwise meaningless existence.

Nevertheless, a former sceptic turned Christian, C.S. Lewis once reflected: If the whole universe has no meaning, we should have never found out it has no meaning: just as, if there was no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. If it were true that the universe came from nothing for no purpose, then its a curious thing that we so intensely yearn for purpose. The fact is that all of us desire our lives to be part of something that is bigger than ourselves. And that desire makes better sense in light of the Bibles story that everything came from nothing because it was created with a purpose by Someone. At the centre of history and Gods story is the divine person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is good news for our world teetering on the edge of the abyss of nihilism. The human race struggles with meaninglessness because we have a problem of sinfulness. And sin is demanding to be the author of your own story and destiny.

Humanity attempted to find life by stepping out of Gods story of paradise, only to step into a nightmare of nihilism. Imagine that Harry Potter decides that hes fed up with JK Rowling: his mum and dad were murdered, his uncle, aunt and cousin are abusive; hes been attacked by two-faced teachers, giant snakes, and soul sucking dementors. Harrys now so fed up with Rowlings dramatic story that he decides he wants to write his own comedy script instead. However when he tries to step off the edge of the page, he discovers that it means stepping into oblivion there can be no independent life for the character disconnected from the Author. Thats why sin leads to death. Thats why life in this world appears meaningless, because everyone we know and everything we do will be undone by death. All our self-made stories end up as tragedies!

Nevertheless, God has done something to make it possible for each of our stories to have a happy ending. Whereas sin is our attempt to step out of God's story, salvation is God the author stepping into history, entering into this world and becoming one of us, to rescue us from the tragedy of despair and death. Jesus has suffered the penalty for our sins and conquered the power of death. Jesus invites us into relationship with Himself: to surrender the pen - to make His story our story to share in His happily ever after ending.

Only in Gods story can our lives become truly meaningful and we find the purpose that we were created to fulfil.Rev David J Nixon, Solas

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Belief in God can help us find a purpose in life that we are currently lacking - David J Nixon - The Scotsman