The Minor Things

Most of us go through life dealing with the daily details of eating, sleeping, bathing, working, playing and socializing - we raise our family, spend time with our friends, and generally pass the time and the hours doing stuff. When you look at our lives from an eternal perspective, it's really pretty pointless: we are born, we live, we die. What matters in the end? This question has haunted mankind for all of recorded history. Why are we here? What is my purpose?

Rick Warren's book, the Purpose Driven Life, and all of it's spinoffs have made him (or someone) a lot of money. I have a copy. Rick basically packages faith in simplistic language that many people can grasp. It's good if you read it and apply it, but my desire is to go deeper, more profound. To contemplate the meaning of life may seem like a waste of time, and it can be if there is no hint of reality included in the endeavor. However, if we as people can be fully engaged in life, and yet avoid the trappings of living and being overwhelmed by the minor things in life, then we are starting to understand.

As a man of faith, I understand that only the eternal things matter. If we actually evolved from some primordial slime that was struck by lightning, then no matter how hard you try, there simply is not meaning in life - it's an accident, and one man's definition is as good as another's. But, if we were created by God, then the contemplations of life have value - we may never comprehend what and who we are, but the endeavor and the effort to go deeper and deeper into the profound has merit. Seeking truth and living life, then requires that we learn how to put the minor things of life into perspective quickly. I'm not simply talking about life and death - these are deep enough in that death helps us focus on life more clearly. No, I mean going beyond death and seeking to understand what truth is - if God created us, then which God? Which spiritual world view is valid for they can not all be true - they are mutually exclusive.

In short, the minor things really are small and should be overcome easily by those who see the more transcendent issues of life and eternity. This can not be done without faith and have any real meaning.