The question, what makes human life meaningful is not so easily brushed aside.
Ravi Zacharias wrote a great theological book on this.
And Victor Frankl wrote a great philosophical book on this.
I like this line below that: “Meaning, while a slippery concept, seemed inextricable from human relationships and moral values.”
Further, I would say that: “Moral values, while a slippery concept, seemed inextricable from human relationships and theology.”
The long and short of it is that meaning is lived outside of self.
Meaning and purpose increase, as ego and self importance decrease.
The Bible calls this “dying to yourself.”
This entire question is the other side of this coin. Is it even worth it? This is not a little question.
See, we are either wildly important, or nothing at all.
I hope you believe the former with me.
A few years later, I hadn’t thought much more about a career but had nearly completed degrees in English literature and human biology. I was driven less by achievement than by trying to understand, in earnest: What makes human life meaningful? I still felt literature provided the best account of the life of the mind, while neuroscience laid down the most elegant rules of the brain. Meaning, while a slippery concept, seemed inextricable from human relationships and moral values.
-Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air (Amazon)
