A dear friend said to me the other day, “Things have lost their meaning. The things that gave me joy don’t mean anything to me anymore. I read them and I get nothing.” She is depressed. She’s watched her life of highs and lows slip into another low and like many (all?) depressions, she can’t see the possibility of an end while she is in it.

However, it may not be just brain chemistry this time. She’s aged; her partner has aged. Life has caught up with them and they face the possibility of no longer being able to care for themselves in their own home. She’s considering the possibility that many of the things she’s taken for granted, might no longer apply. What happens next? What does it all mean?

I don’t have an easy answer here, or even a hard answer. I struggle with this myself. What does it all mean? For decades, I believed that life was all about where we end up after we die. I saw life as a “warm up” to a glorious afterlife. Life seemed like a chance to learn about God, love God and our neighbors, an opportunity to do some good along the way, enjoy, suffer and get through. I don’t think I was alone in this thinking. As Building 429 says in their song, “Where I Belong”

So when the walls come falling down on me

And when I’m lost in the current of a raging sea

I have this blessed assurance holding me.

All I know is I’m not home yet

This is not where I belong

Take this world and give me Jesus

This is not where I belong

This is what I believed for so very long – it may be rough here, but that doesn’t matter – I am not home yet. I found this very reassuring but I am not so sure anymore. When we place all our emphasis on the “after life” – what does that mean for this life? I worry that “cheap grace” and thinking only about me – where I’ll end up – causes many people to stop living out their faith here and now. Perhaps I am to be found doing my Father’s will here and now. But what exactly does that mean? More on that next week. In the meantime, I leave you words from Matt Redmond’s song “10,000 Reasons”. This is where I like to be as I am working this out in my life:

Bless the Lord, O my soul. O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before. O my soul

I’ll worship Your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing

The end draws near and my time has come

Still my soul will sing Your praise unending

Ten thousand years and then forevermore

Bible & Music Trivia: Where does the name “Building 429” come from? Ephesians 4:29, which, in the New International Version of the Bible, reads: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Remember: God loves you unconditionally. 
Mike
 
If you are trying to work out what it all means, read Ephesians Chapter 4. It’s here in NIV or NRSV:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+4&version=NIV
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+4&version=NRSV

If you’d like to hear some great (in my opinion) Christian Contemporary music (songs mentioned above):
Building 429 “Where I Belong” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F81afXrcA4
Matt Redman “10,000 Reasons” (Bless the Lord) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E