Lately, I have been challenged on the idea of meaning. If you've stumbled upon this posting in the hopes that you'll read something coherent, you can stop right here. I don't have any put together thesis. I do have a lot of jumbled thoughts. What does it mean to have meaning in your life? Where does meaning come from and how is it created? How do you experience it? A couple of the theories we have covered in my counseling classes center around the idea (or at least deal with the idea) that today's culture breeds meaninglessness, and that much of the pathology (depression, anxiety, etc.) that people experience stem from this lack of meaning in their lives.
Now, this is a broad statement on what causes problems, and I am not even close to saying I endorse this 100%. But, I do agree with the statement that many tend to live lives empty of lasting, deep meaning, and that our fast-paced, materialistic culture feeds this.
When I think of lasting, deep meaning, I primarily think of my faith in Christ and the Christian story that I have chosen to center my life around. But the counseling theorists that purport these ideas are mostly secular. There are some Christian theorists that have adapted the ideas to a Christian counseling framework, but much of the reading deals with the idea of individuals creating their own meaning for themselves. Many even go so far as to say that religion in general is a human construct that has no basis in reality, but that gives people purpose and meaning in life. In other words, religions are just stories people make up to help them survive this world.
Which is where I get hung up. Why it is that in a world that is desperate and hungry for meaning, there exists a deep reluctance in seeing any sort of absolute Truth, or a Truth that exists outside of ourselves and our grasp on it? Is meaning that you create yourself, for yourself, and by yourself, really meaning? Or is that just experience? And what is it that gives experience meaning? To me, meaning seems to imply something beyond yourself; some element of transcendence. How can you have that unless you attach your experience to something outside yourself? Okay, the world longs for meaning, something bigger than just the individual. But then it resists any word that might say that there is a definition of what that "something outside yourself" is. It's like saying, "I want to find meaning and purpose beyond myself- but I want to control and define what that 'beyond myself; looks like." And all that is left is a feeling of emptiness.
A semi-related thought is one about obedience or authority... is it safe to say that these are the dirtiest words in today's autonomous and self-seeking culture?
When my husband and I began thinking of moving from Seattle to Vancouver for me to pursue a seminary program in counseling, I think most people initially thought we were a little nuts to consider it. We were established; we were comfortable; we were well on our way to the white picket fence, two cats in the yard, and house full of kids ideal. Why would we interrupt all of that just because I felt called to pursue a counseling program in a place where I could also expand my knowledge of the Bible? I could get a counseling degree (and a great education) in Seattle. I think there were moments - days even - when David and I had those thoughts. But we kept praying and talking and thinking and this whole crazy idea of picking up and moving just didn't go away.
So why did we do it? In the end, obedience. We felt that God was leading us to move. But again, this is based on our belief that there exists a Truth outside of ourselves (just like the idea that we draw meaning from a source outside ourselves) that we are putting our faith in. For us, that Truth is the Christian story. Truth, with a capital "T"; truth that remains true whether we believe it or disbelieve it, or distort it into something easier for us to buy into. And again, that is an idea our culture rejects.
I guess for me it boils down to the fact that I draw meaning from something beyond myself; a belief in a God who loves me, and that I see little value in meaning that is derived from within myself. And, in making life decisions, it's not just about me; direction comes from somewhere outside myself. And in a world that I see as plainly longing to be a part of something bigger than just the here and now, there exists a culture that wants to create its own definition of transcendence. But is that transcendent at all?
1 comment:
It pleases me no end that you are such a seeker, always looking for something deeper. I love you much.
Here's a thought. Maybe the reason the "secular world" seems to deny a transcendence in life is the fact the spirituality as become equatity with religion in the mind of so many. The secular world rejects "religion", and when one looks at much that is done and said in the name of any religon, it is not hard to understand. It is really only as one goes behind "religion" and touches the reality that any religion seeks to express in its forms and doctrines, that a transcendence is touched. Religions are meant to be gateways to transcendence. Some in the secular world are attempting to touch transcendence, bypassing the form of religion.
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