8w--THE ULTIMATE SOURCE OF
MEANING
“THE
only adequate structure for morality is that based upon the ultimate meaning
of life.” That is the claim made by a prominent psychiatrist, Rollo May. He raises the question of where this structure
and ultimate meaning of life can be found, and answers: “The ultimate structure
is the nature of God. The principles of God are the principles which underlie
life from the beginning of creation to the end.”
“Man
has a relationship to God,” May continues. “This is so fundamental in man that
it is attributed to his creation, where he was ‘made in the image of God.’” He
also observed that man’s ego and self-will cause him to stray from the godly image,
and this causes inner conflicts and tensions and guilt feelings. This reminds
us of the apostle Paul’s dilemma, as he expressed it:
“The good that I wish I do not do, but the bad that I do not wish is what I
practice. Miserable man that I am!” (Rom.
A
person feels dwarfed not only by space and time, as previously discussed, but
also by the teeming millions of human creatures on earth all around him. “The
bigger the crowd,” says C. G. Jung, “the more
negligible the individual becomes.” He feels “overwhelmed by the sense of his
own puniness and impotence” and that, as a result, “his life has lost its
meaning.”
But
the masses of humanity, so overwhelming to the individual, are as nothing when
compared to God. To him “the nations are as a drop from a bucket; and as the
film of dust on the scales . . . All the
nations are as something nonexistent in front of him.” (Isa.
40:15, 17) This was written more than 2,000 years before the modern schools of
psychology were established, the central figure of which is Sigmund Freud, born
in 1856 C.E.
For
our lives to have any real meaning, they need a connection to Jehovah God, the
Creator of the universe. Many today, however, have doubts that God even exists,
and they therefore find it difficult to relate to him. Nonetheless, evidence
for his existence abounds. Many look at the heavens and earth and agree with
the apostle Paul when he said: “His invisible qualities are clearly seen from
the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made.”
They also can repeat with the psalmist his recorded words: “The heavens are
declaring the glory of God; and of the work of his hands the expanse is
telling.”—Rom.
The
consensus among scientists now is that the universe had a beginning. The
Bible’s first verse also says this: “In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1) Robert Jastrow, in his
book God and the Astronomers, wrote:
“Now
we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of
the world. The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical
and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same: the chain of events leading to
man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of
light and energy. Some scientists are unhappy with the idea that the world
began in this way. . . . But the latest evidence makes it almost certain
that the Big Bang really did occur many millions of years ago.”
The
British theorist Edward Milne in a mathematical treatise on relativity
concluded: “As to the first cause of the Universe, in the context of expansion
[the Big Bang], that is left for the reader to insert, but our picture is
incomplete without Him.”
The Journal
of the American Medical Association,
“The
superb order and regulation in various manifestations of life and in the basic
processes at the cellular and molecular levels have strong influence on the
belief that a higher power exists.”
Now
this recognized great First Cause whose name is Jehovah had a purpose, or goal,
in making the earth: “He formed and made the earth—he made it firm and lasting.
He did not make it a desolate waste, but a place for people to live.” So, too,
when Adam was put in the garden it was for a purpose: “to cultivate it and
guard it.” To both Adam and Eve God said: “Have many children, so that your
descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. I am
putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals.” (Isa. 45:18; Gen. 2:15; 1:28, Today’s English Version)
“Everything Jehovah has made for his purpose,” this is his purpose for
humankind, and his purposes never fail.—Prov. 16:4; Isa. 46:11.
Today
people work toward goals that make them feel their life is meaningful, but is
there a lasting quality to these goals? Will the meaning survive in time and
universal space? The ultimate source of meaning is the doing of work willingly
that Jehovah God has ordained for humankind—caring for the earth, beautifying
it, lovingly exercising oversight of animal life, praising Jehovah as they
enjoy life under the kingdom of Christ Jesus. In this way no longer will they
be dwarfed by space or terminated by time. Each one will then harmonize with
and advance the purposes of God for the earth. Each life will then have
meaning, meaning to man and to God. And if your ultimate meaning in life is not
to be terminated by time then make as your goal the gaining of everlasting life
in the paradise earth under Christ’s kingdom.
There
is another aspect of a life dedicated to God that gives it a meaning of
universal importance. Remember the words of the man of long ago, Job, that were quoted in the opening article of this series?
Remember how those words bitterly lamented man’s fewness of days and their
fullness of trouble? Well, Job’s days were filled with trouble because of a
challenge raised thousands of years ago by Satan the Devil. That challenge was
that Jehovah could not have people on earth who would keep integrity to Him
under test.
Doubtless
in reference to this issue previously raised, Jehovah on one occasion asked
Satan: “Have you set your heart upon my servant Job, that there is no one like
him in the earth, a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside
from bad?” Satan’s retort was, ‘You’ve put a protective hedge around him! Let
me strip him of his possessions and he’ll curse you to your face!’ Satan was
allowed to do that, and, later, was even permitted to bring painful disease and
torment upon Job. The issue between God and Satan was a universal one, for it
was aired before angels in the heavenly court of Jehovah God.—Job 1:6 to 2:8.
Satan
was allowed to do all he could to Job to break his integrity to God, but he
failed. Job cried out: “Until I expire I shall not take away my integrity from
myself!” Later he declared, “God will get to know my integrity.” Job proved
Satan a liar and his challenge false. Further words of his constitute a cry of
hope for all mankind: “I myself well know that my redeemer is alive, and that,
coming after me, he will rise up over the dust. And after my skin, which they
have skinned off,—this! Yet reduced in my flesh I shall behold God, whom even I
shall behold for myself.”—Job 27:5; 31:6; 19:25-27.
Though
many others have failed, some people down through the centuries have kept
integrity to God and proved Satan’s challenge false, and to this extent they
have contributed to the vindication of Jehovah’s name. Surely, nothing could give
a life more meaning than this, to support the cause of the Creator of the
universe, to demonstrate to both men and angels that Satan lied
when he said he could turn all men away from God!
Throughout
the Bible book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon repeatedly referred to this life and
its secular works as vanity, and dismissed it as “this brief span of empty
existence through which he passes like a shadow.” (Eccl. 6:12, The New English Bible)
Nevertheless, he admonished young persons to remember their Creator and
concluded his writings with these words: “The conclusion of the matter,
everything having been heard, is: Fear the true God and keep his commandments.
For this is the whole obligation of man. For the true God himself
will bring every sort of work into the judgment in relation to every hidden
thing, as to whether it is good or bad.”—Eccl. 12:13, 14.
A
life lived in integrity to Jehovah God is not vanity, is not futile, is not
meaningless. Jehovah the Creator of the universe is the ultimate source of
meaning, and a life dedicated and devoted to him will last forever and will
have meaning forever.
[Blurb on page 11]
Jehovah the Creator of the universe
is the ultimate source of meaning, and a life devoted to him will last forever
and have meaning forever
[Box on page 10]
EVEN PROMINENT PSYCHIATRISTS
HAVE BEEN OBLIGED TO CONFIRM THE NEED
FOR BELIEF IN GOD
C. G. Jung:
The “idea of an all-powerful divine being is everywhere, if not
consciously recognized, then unconsciously accepted . . . Therefore I
consider it wiser to recognize the idea of God consciously; otherwise something
else becomes god, as a rule something quite inappropriate and stupid.”
“The individual who is not anchored in God can offer no resistance on
his own resources to the physical and moral blandishments of the world.”
“Religion, as the careful observation and taking account of certain
invisible and uncontrollable factors, is an instinctive attitude
peculiar to man, and its manifestations can be followed all through human
history.”
On his patients over 35: “There has not been one whose problem in the
last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.”
Rollo May:
On belief in God and His mercy: “Then the individual will have gained a
feeling of his own minuteness and insignificance in the face of the greatness
of the universe and God’s purposes therein. . . . He will recognize
that there are purposes which swing in arcs much greater than his little orb,
and he will aim to put himself in harmony with them. He will realize, without
sentimentality, his dependence on God.”
On atheism: “True religion, namely a fundamental affirmation of the
meaning of life, is something without which no human being can be healthy in
personality. . . . What happens to mental health when this meaning
which religion gives is absent? In other words, what is the effect of atheism
on personality? . . . I have been startled by the fact that
practically every genuine atheist with whom I have dealt has exhibited
unmistakable neurotic tendencies.”
[Picture on page 8, 9]
We may seem microscopic in this vast universe, and we may be as a fleeting moment in the endless stream of time, but our position on the earth is unique and our lives are involved in the most meaningful issue in the whole universe