Each of us desperately wants something we can believe in. Something that gives us hope and purpose. We want a worthy cause for which to fight. But the reality is that the longer we live, we see the emptiness in many of our causes, our hopes are crushed. We see that it is just so difficult to make a difference. So we become jaded, cynical, callous. But we are miserable in this condition, although we are haunted and pained by the former idealism, we need to search for something else to give us hope. Or if not hope at least distraction. Distraction from a hopeless and meaningless life.
This is our fallen condition. Not just blue collar workers but I know college professors, executives, medical professionals, entertainers, businessmen. This is our friends, our neighbors, our family members. (me first 25 years of life.) Each are constantly traveling between distraction and despair in a desperate search for hope. It is an endless cycle. It is in this endless search that we never find what we are looking for.
We think we have it for a time but sooner or later we realize as Springsteen says, the river is dry.
But, my friends, we have the answer. This text gives the answer to this tragic treadmill they are on. (constant search for that one thing to bring us hope only to be disappointed when it fails.)
What we are looking for is meaning. We are looking for purpose. We are looking for transcendence! Something beyond this world. Something eternal.
The answer is testified to in this passage. |
