Longing for Meaning

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Today’s Reading: Romans 14:7-8

Today’s devotion naturally comes on the tail of yesterday’s discussion about identity. We want to feel like we have significance, that we have some meaning in the universe. This ties in closely with our identity; it’s the next logical step. As we identify with Christ, we take on a new purpose, and our daily life takes on new meaning. I’d like to revisit Ephesians 2:10 (NIV):

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Viktor Frankl wrote Man’s Search for Meaning in 1946, which chronicled his experience as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp and recorded the observations he made there as a psychologist. The observations of the suffering in that camp led him to propose logotherapy, which is a form of therapy that is based on the idea that humans are primarily motivated by a search for meaning. He came to this conclusion after observing the correlation between each prisoner’s perception of and perseverance through suffering with his sense of meaning and purpose. Furthermore, he found that this purpose is found in something or someone greater than and outside of oneself. 

At some point, most of us will ask, “Why am I even here? What is the point of life?” The answers to these existential questions will lead to either a sense of futility and despair or a sense of purpose and significance. Living for something beyond ourselves is the path to a full life. 

Millennials recognize this. Perhaps as a pushback to the self-orientation of Generation X (again, blame the research, not me), Millennials have been noted to be very interested in causes greater than themselves. They work for more eco-friendly initiatives. They lobby for governmental change. They rage on social media about injustices. I believe they are longing for meaning, and so are living for something outside themselves. It is an honorable motivation, even if it is sometimes misguided or poorly acted out.

You might ask how I can suppose that (some of) these strivings for meaning are misguided. I know that in the same way that I know this: cogs in a machine are only as meaningful as the machine itself is meaningful. One who zealously submits to an evil system will find themselves disillusioned, whereas one who works for an enduring good will find real effect and great reward.

Human systems are flawed because of the Fall and our sin nature (see Day 1). That’s not to say we shouldn’t care about them (more on that tomorrow), but we cannot derive our meaning from our service to human systems. Our meaning is inextricably linked to our identity, and both come from being formed by and purposed for God.

The first teaching of the Westminster Catechism speaks to meaning:

Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

We live for Him, reflect Him, and work for His kingdom, because He knows that we need true and eternal significance and purpose, and those things are only found in Him. As image-bearers of God, we will not ultimately find meaning in anything that does not bring Him glory.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6:33 NIV)

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV)

“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13 NIV)

“For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (Romans 11:36 NIV)