Special Issue
What is The Meaning of Life?
Foster Friess
Image provided by Foster Friess. All rights reserved.
What is the meaning of life?
I would not know how to answer the question as you phrased it. I could better answer the question phrased … “What is the purpose of each of our lives?”
Alright, what is the purpose of each of our lives?
God has given us purpose in our lives by asking that we be a channel of His love to others in that we be His hands and feet in a hurting world, and thirdly that we be a blessing to every person He puts in our path. Discovering this purpose has brought incredible joy in my life and gives me great sadness for those who decided to exclude God from their lives.
One of the catch 22’s of life can be epitomized by what Jesus said, “He who tries to save his life shall lose it, but he who is willing to give up his life for my sake shall gain life.”
In my life experience of people who are committed to serving others and sense a power higher than themselves and therefore a purpose beyond their own selfishness seem to have more productivity, success and enjoyment than those who are constantly probing “what’s in it for me?”
For most of my adult life I decided to be my own god and decide right or wrong for myself to discover at quite a late age that this is the very essence of what the Jews talked about when they discussed the concept of “sin.” Oftentimes it’s been described as falling short, missing the mark, and quite often described as doing something that might be inconsistent with what God would like us to do and be.
It changed my life when I discovered that sin is a lot more sophisticated than that and comes from the Jewish story in Genesis where our ancestors were taught to not eat from a specific tree... the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because if they ate from that tree then they would know right or wrong for themselves and wouldn’t need God.
I’ve come to understand that this rebellion on my part was causing me a lot of challenges in my life; boredom, contentiousness, discord as I tried to impute my sense of right or wrong to my life and the lives of others.
Fortunately I was blessed with a mother who dedicated her life selflessly to her family, making sure the home was cheerfully decorated and clean and that we were well fed and enjoyed her baked bread and myriads of different cookies at Christmas time.
Again I was blessed with a wife who also selflessly dedicated her life to the nurturing of our four children and now 15 grandchildren making sure each got the appropriate birthday gift and all good Thanksgiving and 4th of July greeting cards.
My selfish inclinations would have been much worse had it not been for the role models of these two women in my life.
My probing, investigative, analytical mind allowed me to succeed in picking stocks for people, but it also has given me insights in analyzing people and our culture. I encourage you to ask yourself as you meet people that are committed to being a channel of God’s love, His hands and feet in a hurting world and a blessing to every person in their path, and look at the lifestyle that flows from that versus those whose purpose in life is committed to money, prestige, power, status or self indulgence.
It’s pretty easy to see that these latter goals do not seem to be the kinds of purpose that God has set up for us.
How would you like to be remembered?
I am more interested that the people in my life who were maybe influenced to check out “who is this guy, Jesus?” remember HIM and I am perfectly willing to be forgotten.
The
above dialogue with Foster Friess 2017 © Manner of Man Magazine. All rights
reserved. Reproduction is strictly prohibited without written permission from
the publisher.
