Psalm 8:4 “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”
So many people aspire to being ‘successful’, yet find that when/if attained, success simply doesn’t deliver the desired sense of wholeness. The brilliant but tragic Ernest Hemingway wrote shortly before committing suicide: “I live in a vacuum that’s as lonely as a radio when the batteries are dead.” Bob Geldof’s autobiography is entitled Is that it? Actor Kenneth Williams wrote in his diary on the day of his death: “What’s the bloody point?” Jean-Paul Sartre noted: “This world isn’t the product of intelligence. It meets our gaze as would a crumpled piece of paper… what is man but a little puddle of water whose freedom is death?” A. E. Matthews joked sadly of his own life: “In the end I got so old and tired and weary of living, that I looked in The Times’ obituary column each morning and if I wasn’t there, I got up!”
Taken together, they’re enough to make anyone depressed! Contrast the words of Professor Joad, who was converted from atheism to Christianity. He said that “trying to find happiness from this world is like trying to light up a dark room by lighting a succession of matches. You strike one, it flickers for a moment, and then it goes out. But when you find Jesus Christ, it’s as though the whole room’s suddenly flooded with light.”
Maybe you can relate to the flickering light of fleeting pleasures sought outside of God’s will for your life. I hope you can all the more relate to Joad’s imagery of a room being flooded with light when Christ comes in. He is the source of all meaning, purpose and fulfillment. Look to him!
Lord, thank you that you are indeed mindful of man, that you do care for us. May I derive all my sense of worth and purpose from you today. Amen!
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