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Friday, May 6, 2022

A Meaningful Life

Perspectives on life's challenges

“Suffering and trouble belong to life as much as fate and death. None of these can be subtracted from life without destroying its meaning. To subtract trouble, death, fate, and suffering from life would mean stripping life of its form and shape.” Written by Nazi concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl in The Doctor and the Soul, 1955.

I don’t like this idea that we need suffering and trouble to make life worthwhile. But I also don’t like the prophecy in Isaiah 40:4, “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.” That sounds boring to me.

Mountains, with their trees and snow and wildlife, have a beauty that can’t be found in any valley. Valleys, with their rivers and warmth and fertility, hold a different kind of attraction. What fun would travel be if everything looked the same? Might as well stay home. What fun would hiking be if there were no rough ground or rugged places? Might as well take a leisurely stroll.

I’m a problem-solver by nature. A problem-solver is never content. We always seek out more problems to solve. Some of us devour puzzle magazines. Some create problems where there are none in order to satisfy this drive.

The ideal in today’s Western culture is pretty much the opposite of Frankl’s view. Frankl embraced suffering. Westerners flee from it. We think we must eradicate all pain before we can begin to really live. Abraham Maslow’s philosophy seems to support that concept.

My (admittedly limited) understanding of his hierarchy is that we cannot grow to be our best selves without first eliminating most of our suffering. We will not or cannot pursue self-actualization unless our more basic needs are met first.


One effect of these perspectives

One problem I have with all of these perspectives is how they affect my concept of heaven. If, as Frankl says, there’s no meaning apart from suffering, will I find meaning in heaven? If the new heavens and new earth are flat and featureless, will they be boring? I can’t imagine that there will be any problems to solve in the next life. Will I be able to handle that? When I reach self-actualization (or am made perfect) in heaven, what comes next? Will there be a certain let-down, knowing there’s nothing more to strive for?

During my first several years as a Christian, I wanted my life on this planet to be as long as possible. Heaven would be forever. I couldn’t imagine remaining engaged and intrigued while living in a perfect place for all that time. Wouldn’t it get boring after a while?

But as I’ve learned more about God and grown in my relationship with Him, I’ve realized that every nanosecond of life in His unveiled presence will be deeper, greater, more glorious, and more profound than the wildest experiences here on earth. For all eternity. Never ending. Forever. As a friend once commented, God is omni-interesting. We will never grow bored with Him. That will be impossible.


A new perspective

One reason it’s so hard for me to appreciate heaven is because of my fallen nature. If I can imagine shedding that nature, as I will in the next life, my whole perspective will shift.

Would life really be meaningless if there was no suffering at all? Only if we’re fallen creatures who learn and grow from those painful experiences. Creatures who need to learn and grow because of our fallenness. A fallenness that will be healed in heaven.

Would a life without mountains and valleys really be so terribly boring? Only if we’re fallen creatures with an innate restlessness searching for an outlet. A restlessness that will be relieved in the next life.

Do I really need problems to solve in order to be happy? Only if I’m a fallen creature who lives in a fallen world filled with unlimited problems. A fallen creature who will only turn to the God of the Bible after failing to come up with the most important answers on my own. One who cannot fully realize, until I get to heaven and shed my fallen nature, that God has devised the most elegant, most beautiful, most creative solutions of all.

Do I really have to satisfy my physical and psychological needs, as Maslow believed, before I can find fulfillment? Only if I’m a fallen creature who has deep, troubling psychological—and spiritual—needs. Needs that lead me to seek their fulfillment in God. Needs that will no longer exist in the next life.

I have all these needs, all these desires because God wasn’t content to leave me in my fallen state, a slave to sin and Satan. He planted a restlessness within me to give me hope and direction, to draw me to Himself. In that sense, I can agree with Frankl. Because we’re fallen, we need suffering and trouble to give life meaning. It’s the only pathway to the meaning that we find in God.

 

 


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