Why do we endure such stress and pressure?

For most of us, life’s a struggle. Work can mean endless hassles and even holidays can bring on more struggle. Men, women and children are working and playing their way through life. But after all the perspiration and the parties, the question persists: What’s the point?

Perhaps people don’t go around talking about it, but in quiet moments of reflection, a feeling of emptiness can get a grip. You know, the morning after the night before? The big event we looked forward to for so long has gone in a flash and there’s a huge mess to clean up. It’s a feeling that we are flat out but going nowhere. We just forge into an unknown future because there is no alternative.

A sad song sung in the Seventies said:

Love will last and last for just a day,
Youth will bloom and then be blown away,
Worlds will come and worlds will go,
So what’s the point of this passing show?
Often all we hear are questions.
No-one seems to have any answers.

The thing in a nutshell
On a bench in a Berlin Park, a man sat deep in thought. It was the German philosopher, Schopenhauer. A nearby attendant, wondering if this odd individual may be an anarchist planning a bomb attack, approached him and asked him who he was. “I wish to God I knew” was the reply.

If we are going to answer the question “What’s the point?” we need to ask three more. “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” and “Where am I going?” Until we address these questions, there is no answer to emptiness.

It is guesswork that has got us into this situation. We hear constantly that humans are just animals that came about by chance. No-one intended them — there is no mind behind it all. Therefore, meaning is impossible. The answer to the three questions are whatever you would like to make them. But, beware, we will never be comfortable with our emptiness.

We are not alone
Not only is God there, but He has spoken clearly. Light has been shed on the three questions. The great way that God has spoken is through Jesus Christ, Son of God. He cannot be explained away as just another human being, making his own guesses. Never. He is unique in every way and His answers to the questions are a God-send.

Answer to question one. We are made in God’s likeness as persons who have real significance.

Two: we are here to find and worship God and to live for His honour and glory.

Three: We are all going into eternity. Some to joy; some to pain. All because our choices are significant, especially as we are faced with Jesus’ death on our behalf. Our opportunity to do something about it is now.

“Turn to the Lord and pray to Him now that He is near. Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking. Let them turn to the Lord our God; He is merciful and quick to forgive” (Isaiah chapter 55, verses 6-7Isaiah chapter 55, verses 6-7).