The Great Purpose
Living out God's purpose leaves no room for anything bleak: addiction, anxiety, boredom, depression, frustration... He wants us to be free, joyful, and content.
It cannot be denied that every human follows a religion. To believe in Jesus, nature, luck, money, sex, or nothing at all, are all religions, for religion is merely the belief in something – it is what we put our hope in. Everyone therefore worships something.
Someone’s religion reflects what they think the meaning of life is. This can be a conscious or subconscious belief. Someone whose religion is to believe in nothing obviously believes that there is no meaning in life.
Some of the leading subconscious religions today are consumerism, hedonism, and individualism. Followers of these ideologies of course believe in consuming, pleasure, and pride.
I recently read two books, one after the other, which could not be more different on every possible metric. The first was Hunter S. Thompon’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the second, Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.
Fear and Loathing tells the story of a drug-addict journalist and his debauched attorney’s visit to Las Vegas in search of the American Dream. It can be summarised in a few words: alcohol, narcotics, women, police. The two men did not deny themselves any pleasure.
I wouldn’t be giving Thompson due credit if I didn’t name him as the father of hedonism and the brother of consumerism. The protagonist, Mr. Duke, says ‘Every now and then when life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only real cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas.’
Mr. Duke and his attorney, Dr Gonzo, believed that the meaning of life is to extract as much pleasure out of it as possible. But they were searching for the American Dream, for meaning, for purpose. And it is safe to say that they didn’t come close to finding it, because hedonism and consumerism never satisfy. They never rest. The dream cannot be found.
Everything drug addicts do is a challenge. The men were often ‘in the grip of a serious fear.’ Thompson quotes someone who said, ‘He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.’ Beasts are always running or hiding. What true meaning is there in being a beast?
Thompson encapsulates individualism when he says, ‘there was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning.’ He speaks of shark ethics, which is the strong eating the weak in a world where its every man for himself.
And this is exactly what we are taught at liberal universities today, that we should live for ourselves: for our careers, for our money, for our pleasure, for our power. I am right and no one can tell me otherwise. But are we often right? Does pride lead to true fulfilment?
Man’s Search for Meaning is about Frankl’s experience in Auschwitz. Upon arriving at the concentration camp, absolutely everything they owned was taken away: their families, possessions, clothes, sense of worth, and hair. Frankl had his lifelong scientific research heartlessly destroyed before his eyes.
The only thing that could not be taken away from the prisoners was their free will - their choice to act in any way despite the shocking circumstances… ‘Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.’
Frankl’s experience proves that humans can transcend their surroundings. Our spirits can transcend hopelessness. Our inner strength can rise above our fate. Our decisions outweigh our conditions. We are not automated machines.
He says, ‘The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action… he may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp… whoever was still alive had hope… after all we still had our bones intact.’
Frankl speaks of an old woman who knew she was about to die, and yet she was cheerful. She said death made her take spiritual accomplishments seriously. He knew a man who said, ‘I broke my neck, it didn’t break me.’
Frankl posits that ‘it is this spiritual freedom – which cannot be taken away – that makes life meaningful and purposeful.’ The harsh reality is that life became meaningless for those prisoners who didn’t see meaning in suffering. Meaning asks, “What can be done?” Many prisoners answered “Nothing.”
Experienced prisoners could predict with great accuracy whether a new prisoner would last. The survival variable was simple - it was purpose. Muscular men without purpose wouldn’t last long. But a man with a wife to go home to, with a scientific problem to solve, with a comrade to look after, with hopes of the war ending - he could survive anything.
… ‘Prisoners died less from a lack of food or lack of medicine that from lack of hope; of something to live for.’ Nietzsche famously said that if you have a why you can bear almost any how. Prisoners who lost a why were doomed.
But even when their dreams came true, many prisoner’s hopes were shattered… ‘Woe to him, who when the day of his dreams finally came, found it so different from all he had longed for.’ Woe to him who had fixed his hopes on someone who had died.
Frankl created logotherapy. This psychological technique treats patients by helping them find meaning in life, or their ‘primary motivational force.’ He says, ‘Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.’ Logotherapy ‘tries to make the patient aware of what he actually longs for in the depth of his being.’
He argues that human life never ceases to have meaning. And when asked what this meaning is, Frankl said, ‘I doubt whether a doctor can answer this question in general terms. For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day, and from hour to hour.’ I will return to this later, for it is where I disagree with the great man.
It is therefore clear that the current mental illness pandemic stems from a widespread dearth in meaning and purpose, which Frankl calls the existential vacuum. Meaninglessness leads to the commonalities of today: addiction, aggression, anxiety, boredom, depression, frustration, and the worship of money. These fill the gap where meaning should be.
Frankl says, ‘Mental health is based on a tension between what one is and what one should become. Such a tension is inherent in the human being and therefore is indispensable to mental well-being… What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.’ The inner tension from searching for meaning is essential for good mental health.
The anxious and depressed must not be told that they are a result of biology, psychology, and sociology. Tell them that they can take a stand against such conditions… ‘Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them.’ We are self-determining. We all have the freedom to change at any instant.
… ‘Once an individual’s search for a meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capability to cope with suffering.’
Frankl speaks about individualism and apathy being one of the deadliest mental states in the camps. Isn’t this so prevalent today. People are too concerned about achieving their own happiness, and the second they aren’t happy, the walls cave in. But Frankl points out that humans can’t directly pursue happiness. To attain happiness, we must pursue things that invoke it.
This is the psychological phenomenon where you cannot get the thing you are so fixated on. Focus on being happy the whole time, and you won’t. Focus on having a good first impression, and you won’t. Focus on falling asleep, and you won’t. But as soon as we forget about being happy, affable, or sleepy, they happen by themselves.
… ‘Being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself – be it a meaning to fulfil or another human being to encounter.’
As Christians we believe in one God, in one objective truth, and in one meaning to life which is to come to know this God. All of us have different purposes which stem from this meaning, but the one meaning remains at the centre.
The first thing that Christians quickly learn is that we do not know best. ‘There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.’1
God teaches us to trust and to be fully devoted to Him. ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’2 He knows that left to our own devices, we are chaos, we get lost, and we get hurt. We do not know the right way to go - how could we? We must put all of our hope in Him. The only thing that deserves our worship is our creator.
The second thing that Christians learn is that life is not about us. It is not about our pleasure, happiness, or our good deeds. We are told that ‘If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.’3 And ‘seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’4 We are taught to be humble. We are taught to think of others.
CS Lewis said, ‘Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.’
The most obvious thing we learn is that God wants us to be free from addiction, aggression, anxiety, boredom, depression, and frustration. He wants us to be free. The psychological state of the Christian should be God-like. This is because He has given us all the opportunity to take part in the one true meaning of life.
Frankl said that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire, and that the salvation of man is in love and through love. What greater purpose in life than a relationship with the creator of the universe, with Love Himself? Where we get to know Him, where we get to know ourselves, and where He equips us to go out and be a force for good in this fallen world.
With this purpose, there is quite literally no space for anxiety, depression, and boredom. Pursuing God and His purpose indeed brings everything good with it.
Frankl advises us to live as if this is the second time after we all failed miserably the first. Is this not the Christian principle of being reborn, of dropping our nets and following Christ? Let us follow Him this time, for we might not get another chance.
Woe to Christians who put their hopes in a God who stayed in the tomb. Woe to Christians who put their hopes in their own knowledge, strength, and wisdom.
But those who put their hopes in the resurrected King, and who daily lean on His knowledge, strength, wisdom, and purpose - they are unstoppable. Their hopes will not be put to shame.
How beautiful the world could be if we never forgot God’s meaning in all of our lives.
That dream can be found.
Proverbs 14:12
Luke 4:8
Matthew 10:39
Matthew 6:33
Thanks Mike
Interesting juxtaposition of these two books! I would not have got past the first few pages of the first one, although Frankl's book is also very confronting to begin with too!
I have read Man's Search For Meaning, a long time ago, but found he didn't really get the purpose and meaning of life, but realized that we all need to have a meaning in order to achieve real happiness, and to go beyond just surviving. Perhaps his approach is too just another form of hedonism? But one that has more depth and long term enjoyment in it?
When we understand God's purpose for us is to learn to love others, and thus reflect his light and life in us to the world, then this provides a purpose and a meaning to whatever we do, or whatever trials we come through.
Have you read the Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom? I think it gives a more Christian perspective to the suffering of the Holocaust.
Cheers Martin
I enjoyed that read Mike. Any good book recommendations for this year ? I’m looking forward to Jordan Petersons new book.