It’s not hard to find, or more accurately, feel God in the
mountain-top experiences. But most of life is spent doing ordinary,
repetitive, “mundane” tasks. Finding God in the routine of life is
essential to having a living, vibrant faith in God.
Why do human beings fear nothingness?
Could it be that nothingness is the ultimate stamp of valuelessness?
If we die and our very person, our essence evaporates into
nothingness then all our struggles, all our victories, all our
sufferings, and all our loves are voided. “Voided” can be defined
as: “Having the inner part cut away or left vacant with a narrow
border left at the sides.”
If we don’t survive and continue to own our experience, our love
becomes an unreal vapor — failure and victory alike become hollow.
Our experience of living loses all potency if we end in nothingness.
It is not the non-existence that frightens us but rather the
emptying of the life-long struggle into meaningless nothingness. The
fear of non-existence is a reflection that the experience of living
must have meaning and value.
A skeptic may respond, “Not so! I can pass my experience on and help
future generations!” There may be value to humanity when our
experience is passed on. However, if all humanity is doomed to
nothingness, then the sum total of human existence is nothing. The
idea that our experience helps others and therefore lends value and
potency to our life seems weak consolation if humanity itself is
transitory and valueless.
The antithesis of the valuelessness that comes from nothingness is
living life as a spiritual being made in God’s image and living
forever. Being made in God’s image for His purpose gives life
meaning and value. The hardest struggle to find value and purpose is
fought when looking for meaning in the day-to-day, mundane
activities of life. But if any part of your life is valuable, then
all parts are — including the mundane. God has a plan for my life
and death does not extinguish all that is gained through the
experiences of living. Even learning to trust that the ordinary has
purpose.
We claim for ourselves the truth Paul claimed, “For our present
troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us
a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:17, NLT).
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Contents Does God Exist?, SepOct11.
