• Meaning without purpose and purpose without meaning dilemma

The “meaning without purpose dilemma” refers to the modern struggle to find a sense of meaning in a universe that may not have an inherent purpose, often leading to feelings of aimlessness or existential dread. This dilemma arises because many people desire a sense of purpose, but existentialist philosophy (that of our existence), for example, suggests humans are born without a pre-ordained purpose, forcing individuals to create their own meaning through their actions and choices. It’s a conflict between the human need for a guiding narrative and the lack of an objective, external one.
Source: https://www.google.com/search:: meaning without purpose dilemma

This is a mouthful. If the universe has no inherent purpose we are just here by chance. Life is meaningless. Existentialist philosophy either denies the existence of God or he has no impact on human need. People then create meaning in their own lives in the abscence of an external meaning (i.e., God’s will). It is a sad place to be.

Here is my journaling on the subject:
Purpose is the reason why I am doing something (a declarative statement of intention). I might purpose to get out of bed today, study for 30 minutes, read a book or article for an hour, take breaks inbetween and finish all of my to-do’s by the end of the day. Purpose is why are you doing all of this? What is your end goal or goals in mind by doing this and also doing this consistently?

Meaning gives sustenance to purpose. Like the meaning to life which we shall explore in two more sessions. Meaning gives us direction. Without a good or adequate meaning our purposes can be ill-aimed or even wrongly defined. Meaning gives us context to any purpose or purposes. It is like reading before or after in the context for a declarative statement (of purpose).

So you need to go both directions and even bi-directional. If you have purpose that will come from meaning and context. If you have meaning that has to have a purpose of intention. Neither is inseperable.

— Some biblical examples that might help

First let’s look at Jeremiah to understand purpose of something that seems meaningless.

Jer. 29:11:: I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land

In Jeremiah 32 the prophet was instructed to purchase a piece of land from the son of his uncle. If Israel was soon going into captivity there was no purpose in purchasing land. All would be lost. Jeremiah might not yet have had the big picture but trusted his God in faith. This likewise should be our position when we don’t fully comprehend purpose for our lives.

God said in Jer. 32:15 that houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. The purchase of the land had a purpose. It was to secure land rights for the future. God gave the prophet some context. It also had a spiritual purpose. God has thoughts toward us of peace and a future and a hope. God has already said “behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah” (Jer. 30:3). There was a purpose in buying the land. It was a faith action which also signifies trust in the Divine. We need to take concrete steps of faith to acknowledge God’s plans for our lives.

Let us look at Ecclesiastes for some additional wisdom. The preacher here may not have understand purpose or even destiny for it says:
Ecc. 1:2-3:: Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

Everything we gain from toil has to acquire meaning. Without purpose why would we even start anything? Our purpose could be to build a business or a ministry. Vanity here is really the hebrew word meaning breadth or even mist. It has no substance and may easily come and go. Such a concept that all is vanity does not speak to me of faith.

Yeshua said, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:8).

The rûaḥ means wind or breadth but often refers to the Spirit of God. It is a feminine noun yet the helper or paracletis of the new testament is masculine. Noun gender does not sound real important but perhaps a change in the new covenent implies intentionality. The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ which is the transliteration of what is called Messiah.

The preacher in Ecclesiastes says ‘the wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns’ (Ecc. 1:6).

Even the proverb “what comes around, goes around” means that the consequences of one’s actions will eventually return to them. Wind going in a circle means no directionality and speaks nothing of consequences for bad behavior.

From Ecclesiastes all we know is the wind blows to the south and also travels north. It cirles and moves around. Eventually it returns to the place it started. Where is meaning in all of that?

The birthing of the Spirit is not as predictable. We do not know the course or circuit of the Spirit. In other words he has not a predicable, defined course. The Spirit has a wish even a will and intent. We may not be able to predict or track his path like a meterologist does with weather maps. Yet the Spirit basically tracks his own course. This is intentionality, a purpose for existing (to convict the world of sin, righteous, and judgement in John 16:8). He guides us into all truth (John 16:13), and glorifies Christ (John 16:14).

Self-indulgence, living wisely, and all toil are all seen as vanity in chapters 2, 3, and 4 of Ecclesiastes. Even success is considered vanity.

I observed that most people are motivated to success or achievement because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind (Ecc. 4:4).

It is not until we get to chapter 7 does the preacher start extolling the value of gaining wisdom. Wisdom can be associated with the female personality of the Holy Spirit. It is really a nurturing trait.

So no matter how much you achieve or how successful you become there is an emptyness in all this toil. So we strive to do something important (our purpose) but there is no meaning to any of this. Chasing the wind means you can never catch what you want to achieve. I do not see any of this rhetoric as containing faith.

For instance we might purpose to build a business or create a ministry that has great plans and goals. According to Solomon this is meaningless. As you can see, Solomon has a rather bleak and empty view of works. Nothing means anything in the end. Even faith by our works is meaningless because it will all burn up in the end. Is that the totality of what the bible says about our works? Does emptiness result after all of our hard work and toil? No, according to Apostle Paul.

— A sure foundation

Foundations are important. From there you can start building something. If life is to have any meaning and is not all vanity we have to start with something meaningful.

1 Cor. 3:11-15:: For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Fire, when it has done it’s purpose results in smoke. It is just as the wind. It blows away and disperses. So is the same for any toil or work we endeavor to do if it does not last. A failed business or one that goes bankrupt or a ministry that disappears is of no lasting value according to the Apostle. But I would add that even in failure we can learn important lessons. This view is not the same view as the teacher in Ecclesiastes which says all is meaningless.

Some things endure the fires of life. Gold, silver, and precious stones might melt or get scortched. 1 Peter. 1:7 says the testing of our faith is more important than gold, though it be tried in the fire. Faith can last for all of eternity. It is not physical, it is spiritual.

Wood, hay, and straw get consumed and only result in smoke and ash. We need to seek to build with something lasting. Something that will endure. Things that are temporal, in general, do not last.

In this epistle Paul has given us a foundation, a starting point. This is Jesus Christ. We need to know that Jesus was not his name in the original hebrew. It was Yeshua which means God saves. This name is found in the Psalms, in Isaiah and several other books of the Old Testament.

Psalm 51:12 includes the phrase, “restore to me the joy of your salvation (Yeshua)”. King David knew of God’s saving grace yet it was fleeting at the time. Maybe even a breadth or wind.

Yehoshua (even Joshua) is an earlier form of the name. Joshua brought the children of Israel into the promised land. Likewise Yeshua leads us into God’s saving grace. He was the Messiah, meaning anointed one. This is a title.

To the Ephesians Apostle Paul wrote ‘by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast’ (Eph. 2:8-9). I am writing this not just to speak of the gospel story but to speak to the issue at hand: vanity of purpose and the meaningless of toil (and really everything).

If we have a good foundation and build on it with something that endures then we obtain a reward.

In Matthew 7:24 Yeshua says ‘whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock’. He is the bedrock, even our petra. Petra is city in Jordan that is know for it’s beautiful architecture and is a UNESCO world heritage site. It remains unto this day. It could one day be destroyed, I merely use this as a symbol of what persists.

Yeshua spoke to Peter this way: you are Peter (petros), and on this rock (petra) I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). Don’t think of fire and brimstone when Yeshua compares Hades to My church. Hades here is the idea of the underworld, the land of the dead. This dispells the idea there is nothingness after death. The church shall prevail.

Peter’s confession in Matthew 16 shows that he realized Yeshua was the Christ (Messiah), the son of the living God. Yeshua’s question however was “who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”. This is a very profound question. The Son of Man is depicted in Daniel chapter 7 and where it speak of an eternal kingdom.

to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed (Dan. 7:14)

This is the bedrock which cannot be destroyed. We merely much build on this with things that can endure.

So leave it up to God to give your life a meaning and a purpose. Our’s is many times a life of discovery, trial and error. It is ok to ‘miss the mark’ sometimes but ultimately we need to get on the right track and ensure Christ is our bedrock, our purpose for being and at the meaning to our lives.