What Gives Life Meaning?

When I’m not working as the Interim Minister of The Park Church, I am a Pastoral Counselor, providing pastoral psychotherapy through the Susquehanna Family Counseling Ministry. Often people come to counseling during transitional periods in their lives when they find themselves dealing with family changes (marriage, birth of a child, a newly “empty nest”, divorce, or the death of a loved one) or life changes (going to school, graduating, beginning a career, retiring, dealing with physiological changes like aging or being wounded). Inevitably we get around to talking about some of the fundamental elements of life – that is to say, those values, beliefs, or resources that inform their decisions and affect the quality of their experiences, at least in the short term. Sometimes we talk about what gives life its meaning: the reasons that it’s worth getting up in the morning, for example. Many people have been taught that they should look for meaning in their career, or role in the family, or by the amount of money they can make. In my experience, sometimes these approaches work and sometimes they don’t. So, many years ago I began looking at a deeper level for those characteristics that affect the degree to which we experience meaning in life.

After more than 35 years of listening to people, both as a minister and as a pastoral counselor, I have distilled hundreds of answers to the “meaning question” into three broad characteristics.

The first characteristic is that people want and need opportunities to be creative. We could talk about this theologically and affirm that we are all created with the capacity to be creative. People tell me that they become more meaningfully engaged with life when they can exercise creativity. Sadly, in our consumerist and spectator culture, creativity is too often associated with professional visual or performing artists. Sadly, many people today don’t know that their creativity is natural and that they need to be creative in order to be healthy. One’s creativity can be expressed in thousands of ways that need not make money or garner public affirmation. People can write letters, doodle in margins, cook attractive and tasty meals, whittle sticks, write poetry, take photographs, make clothing, or plant flowers, to name only a few. They can also engage in some of the more traditional artistic pursuits – like painting, singing, or dancing. If you’re interested in a book that addresses this issue, try “The Artist’s Way”, by Julia Cameron or go to her website at http://www.theartistsway.com/
By the way, there are all sorts of ways to be creative in worship, too.

The second characteristic of a meaningful life is the ability to appreciate beauty. This one has two parts: are there expressions of beauty around you, and if so, do you recognize and value them. Sometimes, how much money you have can determine how much beauty you can have around you, although, what people do with their money does not always make one’s surroundings more beautiful at all. So we may have identified a social justice issue. If you’re forced to live next to the town landfill, the beauty surrounding you may be limited. But the greater issue for a meaningful life is the inner capacity to notice the beauty in whatever is around you. If you think that creation, for example, is fundamentally good, then you will expect to find much beauty there. If, on the other hand, you think that creation is just a jungle where survival is the only value, then what is beautiful will be ignored at best, and seen to be a distraction from survival, at worst. You may have already made the connection that the products of creativity in one person might be the source of the beauty that is apprehended by another. We all probably need to be reminded from time to time, to open our senses to the beauty around us. I might add that one of the purposes of liturgy, sacred space, and music in worship is to provide opportunity to appreciate beauty.

The third characteristic of a meaningful life is both specific and general. It is one’s experience of being in relationship. The specific perspective might have to do with being in relationships with other human beings, whether in a family, or romantically, or working together on a creative project. The more general perspective is a broad sense of being connected to life. Too often, religion has taught people not to see what they have in common with other people who appear to be “different.” Religion has also taught people not to see their connection to the planetary environment, and instead to see it as an enemy to be dominated. Still, it appears that we are created with a capacity and a need to be in relationship, and we experience more meaning in our lives when we relate.

I would hope that Healthy Liberal Christianity would promote all of these characteristics. Jesus said, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” I’d choose to believe that he was referring to abundance of meaning in life.

Perhaps you have different ways of answering the question about what gives life meaning. Let’s hear about them.

Wayne Gustafson

“God is still speaking”… through creativity, beauty, and relationship.
The United Church__of Christ