I've figured out the meaning of life. Believe it or not, everyone has the same goal in life.
Last week, I listened to the Plumbline teaching at the UofN for the 4th time.
What was so special about this time was that the founder of the Counselling School,
and the person who actually created the plumbline teaching, Bruce Thompson,
taught the plumbline teaching in person.
So as I'm walking home every night after the teaching, and all the puzzle pieces started to come together in my mind,
and I came up with this summary of life. (Based on the plumbline teaching)
Here it goes.
What is the meaning of life? What is everybody's goal in life?
Believe it or not, I figured it's the same for everyone.
Everyone's goal in life is the continuous search for true love.
We either search for love, and strive to receive it, or we deal with the pain of not having received it.
CS Lewis wrote : "Love is a giving based relationship which releases value in one's being"
We want to be loved because we want to feel valued. And we find love in relationships. Sometimes
we focus on value adding pursuits, so that we can make people think we're "of value" so we can make relationships,
so we can receive love.
Like in Korea, we have so many people focused on education,
making more money, bigger car, bigger apartment so that they can feel they have value, thus receive love...
And what happens when they don't get the love they searched for?
They cope with the pain of not receiving love. A love deficit. and they fall into addictions like drugs, alcoholism, sex, gluttony, dramas, smoking etc. (destructive coping methods)
or appealingly beneficial coping methods like working hard, performing, pursuit of knowledge, religious activities.
These activities are appealingly beneficial coping methods because they cope with the pain but also increase their sense of worth and value,(so they can feel loved) rather than destroy one's self through destructive addictions. But nevertheless the appealingly beneficial coping methods are destructive as well, because it it builds your self-worth, your identity on what you can do... not who you are.
What you can do will never be enough to prove your self-worth. because it will never be enough.
Even doing good, and becoming a good Samaritan to help others... may be a mechanism to cope with my love deficit, so i strive to help others
so others will love me.
So our lives is the constant longing and search for love.
But love , the unconditional love, the love we really need and can only
satisfy our heart is God's unconditional love, and that was given to
us as evidence through his Son Jesus Christ. We are made in God's image,
we were made to recieve his love. We do not have to do anything to receive it. We already have it.
so we do not have to earn it, and we don't have to "DO" anything. We just "BE" in God.
and when we don't receive God's love and "BE" in Him, we falsely strive to find it else where.
