The Meaning of Life
As a scientist who has spent most of his life in the aerospace industry, studying at NASA and working in space programs around the world, I understand the value of science in our lives. Science has extended our lifespan, brought benefits to our health, opened the skies for us to travel further and faster. But science can only go so far. Science cannot offer fulfillment to our hearts, cannot fill the spiritual emptiness people struggle with, cannot heal our souls, and cannot give meaning to our life.
There are three important periods in your life. When you enter into your twenties, you chase a career that other people have suggested, recommended, or even imposed on you. You are doing other people’s will. Before you enter into your thirties, frustration, anxiety, and depression – sometimes illnesses – begin to set in because you feel you have no purpose in life. If you find the courage to break the bondage and leave, you go to find your own road in life. You discover your passion, and you follow your dreams for a while. You feel enthusiasm because it seems that you have found freedom. You are doing your will. This period is enjoyable, but this too doesn’t last long because, while it gives you excitement, it is not the true meaning of life. And one day, when God touches your heart and you put all your dreams at His feet, when you lift your hands and say: “Jesus, here I am. I am yours. Everything I am, everything I have, use it,” you begin to do God’s will. When you get here, you are finally free. You have found the true meaning of life.
There are three questions that guide your life, and the answer to these questions is the foundation for everything we are, and for everything we do in life. Early in our exploration of life, we are guided by the “what”: What can I do, what can I get, what can I achieve? Very soon we learn that the “what” is void of life, dead of purpose, and empty of any joy.
Later, as we let go of the “what,” we begin to be guided by the “why.” We ask ourselves questions such as “Why am I here?” or “Why am I doing what it is that I’m doing?” The common trend nowadays is to start with the “why.” But persist long enough, and you realize that the “why” will not get you far. The third question, and the one that opens a new dimension of abundant living is the “who”: “Who am I doing this for?” or “Who am I living for?” The only answer that will make you unstoppable in the pursuit of your dreams is “God.” When you surrender your life to Christ, when you honor the dreams He put in your heart, and you do everything in your power to honor Him, you discover a new dimension of glory, inner power, and peace unshakable by this world. When you become a child of God, in spirit and in truth, you discover the true meaning of life.
Dr. Dragos