Three Ways to Make Your Life More Meaningful
Introduction
Short sideline passes; long bombs, and sometimes long over-the-middle pass plays are common after the “Two Minute Warning” is given in a professional football game. Here game clock management is as important as yardage gained. Despite what transpired for fifty-eight minutes of quality football, the outcome will ultimately be decided in just two minutes of play. Experienced teams make the most of the game’s remaining minutes of playing time through well-executed “two minute drills” that are both efficient and mistake-free. Effective offenses train hard by practicing, and even choreographing their scoring attack. Despite a team’s best efforts many football games end with the offensive unit on the goal line unable to run another play because time expired. Fortunately, football teams know how much time they have to work with before the final buzzer sounds. Our lives are different. Most of us will never know when our time is up and the game of life will end. When time runs out on our lives and the game of life ends we will be asked: How well did we play the game?
Generally speaking, people are passive about planning their lives. Most people tend to go with the flow and like activities that give them instant gratification. For example, most married couples today spent more time planning their weddings than planning their lives together. Think about it. Do you remember going to the “perfect wedding” only to see the couple break up a year later. Our generation is fun and exciting and we do a lot of things. Although our career successes, world travels, and higher education keep us active and knowledgeable, they do not make our lives meaningful. We’ve failed at producing people that are content with their lives. Worldly success, fame, and fortune do not translate into lives with meaning. All we have to do is look at the sports and entertainment industries and see incredibly talented, wealthy people self-destruct on drugs, immoral behavior, and reckless living. My friends, there is hope. Fortunately today in St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 5:8-19, he instructs us about three ways to make our lives more meaningful.
First Way To Make Your Life More Meaningful – Know Who You Are
Before we can have meaningful lives, we first need to know who we are. I’m not talking about knowing basic facts such as our name, rank, and serial number. Knowing who we are means knowing about the infinite world within us. Knowing who we are means knowing what we stand for, what we live for, what we hope to accomplish, and knowing what impressions we want to make - it’s knowing what floats our boat. Ancient Greeks seeking advice came to the city of Delphi to consult the famous Oracle at the Temple of Apollo. Here the inscription “Know Thyself” was carved in the temple and it was perhaps the greatest advise that one could receive. We cannot responsibly act or find meaning in our lives until we get past this first step. We must spend some time and know ourselves.
Think for a moment – if I were to ask you who are you, what would you say? There are two basic ways to answer the question. For the non-Christian, people define themselves based on their personal characteristics or accomplishments. For example, I’m a 46 year-old father, a former wrestler, a Certified Public Accountant, a graduate of the St. Bonaventure University, and so on. On the other hand, Christians see themselves quite differently. Christians define themselves by their relationship to their Lord and Savior. The world defines itself in terms of what they do – Christians define themselves in term of who they serve.
Christians are special people and St. Paul reminds the Christians at Ephesus about their unique identity. They are instructed to “walk as children of the light.” What does this phrase mean exactly? Throughout the New Testament, we see several references to Jesus as the Light. Light in the Bible represents both truth and holiness. As God’s children, Christians are called to act honorably, and morally for the glory of God. Children of the light call upon the true Light of Christ for strength and direction. Just as plants need light to grow, Christians also need the Light of Christ to grow in the faith. The Light of Christ brings life to His people. We receive the Light of Christ through prayer, meditation, worship, Bible study, the sacraments, and performing good works. By basking in the Light of Christ, we become more Christ-like in our motives and actions. Eventually we will be able to unite our will with Christ’s will for us. Then as true Children of the Light, we will be able to radiate Christ’s light to the world. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world.” His light in us will enable us to heal creation, expose sin, and devote ourselves to serving Him. Knowing that we are Children of the Light empowers us to lead meaningful lives because through Him all needs are satisfied.
Second Way To Make Your Life More Meaningful – Know What You Are To Do
It’s been said that without vision the people perish. People who live meaningful lives have a sense of purpose and conviction. They have vision and are driven people. As children of the light, we naturally want to please God. In order to please God, we are encouraged to know God. St. Paul advises us to “try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” We learn how to please God when we place ourselves humbly at His feet requesting His wisdom to guide our actions. Knowing God is an ongoing activity that reaches out to God and asks Him to be involved in our lives. Knowing God is an active relationship where we know Him through what we read, hear, and experience through prayer. We know God through active service.
More important, people who know God well have a firm grip on their personal calling. They are focused on virtue and Christian service and have a hard time engaging in sin because it is against their nature. Sin is a contradiction of meaningful life. St. Paul points out that drunkenness, unfruitful works of darkness, and other sins too terrible to even mention are both foolish and evil. Children of the Light Christians are called to expose sin and transform the world around them. Christians on the other hand need to be compassionate regarding the people who are unhappy, lost, dejected, and have given up on life.
St. Paul calls on Christians to be filled with the Spirit and to live joyful, triumphant lives. Our joy can be captured through worship and singing psalms to the Lord as mentioned in today’s text. True worship praises God and worship is our highest form of Christian existence. Worshiping God is a symphony of love unites and bonds the body of Christ. It reenergizes the body into exposing the corruption in the world and enables the light of Christ shine to dispel the world’s darkness. Worshiping God, tending to the “least of the brethren,” and devoting ourselves to holiness are cornerstones of a meaningful life. Yet, our Christian joy is something that is best shared. It’s interesting that St. Paul quotes a passage from Isaiah 60:1 that reads, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” The imagery we have in this Old Testament passage is vivid. Think of a dark valley in the morning where a thick fog has rolled in. This dark valley represents the world. Now, as the day breaks and the sun rises in the sky, the fog slowly burns off and the valley is filled with sunshine and light. This is analogous to the Light of Christ. His light burns off the sin in our lives and brightens our day because the darkness is exposed and cannot overcome the light. Don’t we also want to bring His light to the world? Is there any greater calling?
Third Way To Make Your Life More Meaningful – Make The Most Of Your Time
Knowing who we are, and knowing what we are to do is important to having a meaningful life. In order to maximize our effectiveness we must make the most of our time. Having worked in several factories, I know firsthand the survival of any manufacturing facility is dependent on its productivity. Plant supervisors are informed in real-time of bottlenecks, delays, inefficiencies, and quality control issues. Whole financial disciplines are devoted to productivity management (cost accounting) because this issue is so important. How is it that the world measures progress, but somehow productivity metrics escape the Church and the Christian faith? On a global level we see our world is heading towards moral decay, our culture is becoming more secular, and there is relatively little difference in behavior between Christians and the general population. Why is our Christian faith not effective? Aren’t Christians productive? Unfortunately, I believe that Christians are not as productive as they can be. Many Christians do the bare minimum in life and drift along by just going to Church on Sundays and avoiding any major sins. I submit that this passive attitude is the greatest trap for God’s people. Too often Christians think that they have salvation and heaven all wrapped up and all they need to do is not “blow the game.” The bible instructs us otherwise. Today, St. Paul encourages the faithful to act as wise men by, “making the most of your time.”
I want everyone to think back to just last week when we spoke about the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). Here the master entrusted his servants with five talents, two talents, and one talent. The servants could do anything with their talent that they desired. Two of the servants invested their talents wisely and doubled their master’s money. They were rewarded by the master and were given authority over greater assets. The one servant who buried the talent in the ground and gave the master his money back was called wicked and slothful. Not only was the unproductive servant verbally scolded, but also he was cast out into the outer darkness. This parable is a blatant reminder that God is calling for us to be productive with our lives.
I believe that one of the greatest sins in the world is the sin of omission. Sins of omission happen when we pay lip service to helping others but never seem to have the time. Deep down, I believe that all of us here are good people with good intentions. I believe that we all love our Lord and Savior. On the other hand, we all fall victim to spiritual slothfulness and do not consciously seek to maximize our service to God. Our world convinces us to relax, eat, drink, and be merry and to enjoy our abundance like the man in the parable of the Rich Fool. Unfortunately, using our “free time” to indulge ourselves in worldly pleasures does nothing for us spiritually. We let down our guard and our attention moves from serving God to personal needs.
Spiritual idleness my friends diminishes the effectiveness of the soul and meaning we receive out of life. Think for a moment. What types of people are the happiest people that you know? Passionate people are the happiest because they love what they do. Even in this Cathedral, the hardest workers seem to be the most content because they are working passionately, effectively, and productively for the glory of God. St. Paul’s advise rings true. Make the most of your time. Serve God.
As I close, I want to mention that too often we set out on adventures and experiences only to fail or to give up before we complete our endeavors. Our dreams often do not become realities because of circumstances that seem beyond our control. When our lives don’t turn out as we expect, or when we accomplish a lot of things and still fill empty it’s because we are not engaging in the right activities. Only certain activities replenish the soul. Our challenge is to nourish the soul by directing it on the right path. In order to do this we first must define ourselves as Children of God and see ourselves in relationship to our Creator. Through our heavenly focus, we are able to concentrate on activities that please God and keep ourselves busy serving Him. Ironically, when we serve God and devote ourselves to His will we find meaning in life. Our challenge is to avoid spiritual slothfulness and make the most of our time. How about it? Why not practice the “two minute drill” of salvation by making the most out of the rest of your life.
