A dear friend (who would claim no conventional faith) recently challenged my assertion that no one can have any sense of meaning if we dispense with the notion of God.   She said that people do have value and meaning because it is conferred on them by the love of a family.

I thought she raised a great point.  So, what do you think?  Is the love of a family enough to give a person a fundamental sense of value and meaning?

Certainly, if a child is denied the love of a father and mother, it often results in a dysfunctional life.   So, at the very least, we can say that the safe, healthily functioning love of family is vital for a person’s well-being.

The whole notion of love is a bit of mystery, isn’t it?   We have the sneaking suspicion that love is more than the result of evolution teaching us to care for the next generation.   It seems to have the echo of something more profound behind it.  The question is: could this have something to do with God?   Are we the objects of God’s love… and is this the reason we share his capacity to love?   Or is our love simply the consequence of an evolutionary survival mechanism?

So, let me ask again: Is the love of family and friends enough?

I think the answer, at best, is: “only sometimes.”

Not long after I began being a minister in a new church, I had the heartbreaking task of caring for a couple whose son, (a young adult), had committed suicide.   He’d left school and gone to work as a farmhand in a remote outback homestead—and hung himself.   Somehow, things had become so hopeless for him that he committed suicide—despite the love of his parents.

This raises the issue of whether or not we have fundamental value and meaning.   And beyond that question lies another: Is there an eternal destiny beyond the crazily unlikely reality of our current existence?

These are the sort of questions that gnaw at our soul in those disturbing times of quiet and profundity that can come when we are not looking at our smartphones and being distracted by giggling entertainment.

So, what have you concluded as a result of sitting alone and looking at the night sky?   Does it whisper the possibility of a greater meaning, or have you concluded that the love of a family is enough to give you significance?

For some, the love of a family is enough.   However, the brutal reality is: any sense of a person being significant to anyone will be lost after three generations.   Beyond that, no one can expect to be remembered.

So, there you have it.   If there is no God, you have three generations in which to be significant.   Make the most of it!

It is fascinating to see how some people have sought to do just this.   I have had the privilege of going to India a few times.   When I go, it is not uncommon for me to see statues of wealthy businessmen in town squares that businessmen have erected in their own honour.   This is but one symptom of people seeking to clutch at immortality.

It is not hard to see others.   Some leaders of world’s countries are doing the same thing when they give expression to their ambition to establish an empire that dominates, exploits and controls as many other nations as possible.  They too are seeking to immortalise their memory and ensure a place in history.   The sad reality is, however: such people will simply be remembered as tyrants.

So, the question remains: Is there evidence of a meaning to life beyond the brutal reality that you will make good fertiliser and be forgotten within three generations?   Does it even matter to you?

It all depends on what is true, doesn’t it?

If Christianity is right, then God exists.   And if that is true, it changes everything.   It means that a new reality now beckons to us—inviting us to share in a deeper significance.

But for belief in God is to be reasonable, it must line up with:

• the best thinking of rational science
• the best morality that can be conceived
• sound historical evidence

The question is: Have you checked out the evidence?   Is the question of your significance important enough for you to do so?

What I can assure you is that there is no mechanism known to humankind that explains the order of the universe other than that there is an intelligence behind it.   And there is no morality greater than that taught by, and epitomised by, Jesus Christ.   Finally, I can assure you that the historical evidence for the existence and reputation of Jesus Christ is overwhelming.   Even non-Christian historians living in the first century (Josephus and Tacitus) wrote about him.

So, where are you with all of this now? Surely the issue of your significance is important enough to at least explore the possibility of God.   If you don’t, you run the risk of missing out on a level of significance you can’t even conceive of.   It is impossible to conceive because it is bound up in the relentless love of God—a God who wants to be known… and who has done everything possible to win your love.