I was doing my usual channel surfing recently. It is a known fact that men are not as concerned
with ‘what’s on TV’ as much as we are interested in, ‘what else is on TV’. I think it comes from our heritage of being
adventure seeking discoverers as ‘hunter/gatherers’. Women are usually less prone to channel surf
as their heritage leans more to ‘nesting’.
But I digress. Back to the point,
I was channel surfing and ran across a program on the recent suicide of
celebrity chef, Anthony Bourdain. They
were playing a montage of clips and quotes from his programs about his life and
travels. He spoke of a tattoo he had on
his arm that said, “I am certain of nothing”. This
tattoo described his continuing search for meaning and purpose. He spoke of having respect for religion but
he leaned toward atheism.
The quote “I am
certain of nothing” is a partial quote from Romanticist poet, John Keats. In a letter to his friend, Benjamin Bailey, Keats
wrote “I am certain of nothing but the
holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of the imagination”. The
letter was written speculating on religion and imagination. It is believed that since his friend Benjamin
was studying theology, they may have had discussions regarding theological
philosophies during Keats stay at Oxford that influenced this letter. In this
quotation, Keats is telling his friend that he is confident in the sacredness
of things that the heart finds pleasure in and the reality that can be invoked
by creativity.
All through history people have sought to find meaning, purpose
and joy in life. Keats found meaning in imagination
and creativity. Anthony Bourdain seemed
to have a great gig going; in fact I recently told my wife that although I am
enjoying retirement I would not mind his job; traveling to exotic destinations,
meeting interesting people and eating all kinds of food…and getting paid for
it! However, there was emptiness in his
quest that was revealed not only in his tattoo but in his final act. He had riches, fame and was doing what he
seemed to love. He was filming another
episode of his show on travel and gourmet food in the city best known for such but
he decided to end his own life by hanging himself with his bathrobe belt in a motel
room in Paris.
In my days of being employed as a minister part of my work
was research. I once ran across an article,
by an anonymousAre non-believer asking ‘What is the Point of Life?’ The writer argued, “that the only reality we have is the present, the more life seems
somewhat pointless – particularly if there is nothing after this existence and
can't be sure that there is something more. And let's be honest, we can't be
certain. No matter how strong our faith in a particular religion or philosophy,
we can only ‘believe' if we don't have the evidence to truly ‘know'. Saying, “I believe”, is never an adequate
substitute for being able to say, “I know”, and faith is largely centered around
belief because it relies on second, third, fourth (and so on) accounts of
things that may or may not be true.”
His conclusion with his supposition that we can’t be certain
of anything but the present was this; “The
point is to live with what you know to be real. But the fact is, we don't know
what's around the corner, what happens when we die or even the true extent of
the control we have over our lives. What we do know is that we have an
awareness of being here now. Stop for a moment and look around. That's an
awareness looking through those eyes; a soul, a physical being, a personality,
a beautiful individual. Don't spend your life believing, because the happiness
is in the knowing. There's nothing to hope for in the future but everything to
embrace right this second. This is the point. You are the point, along with
every other living organism that surrounds your existence in this moment. The
tiniest, seemingly insignificant insect you see on the floor is a fundamental
part of the point, because you know it exists in the here and now. When we start living with what is real, the
point of life falls into place. It has context, substance and meaning. Live in
the present moment, stick with what you know to be real and the meaning of life
will become your individual experience of joy. Any thoughts of what might be
will become just that, thoughts, rather than self-prophesying “beliefs” that
amount to non-reality living."
While I obviously don’t agree with everything that writer said,
I do agree that living a life enjoying the reality of the moment is not such a
bad way to live. In fact, Jesus tells us
not to worry about tomorrow. Contrary to
the writer, who says that ‘we don’t know
what is around the corner’, Jesus is tells us that we can trust Him for ‘what is around the corner’ and that is
why we can enjoy the reality of the day and not worry about tomorrow. I also agree that things we, as believers,
hold dear in our faith cannot be proven as reality in a laboratory however, the
things that can be proven in a laboratory or the reality of the ‘here and now’ are not the embodiment of
ultimate truth. While Anthony Bourdain tattooed,
“I am certain of nothing” on his arm
Jesus spoke often of the importance and power of belief and faith. Hebrews 11:1 says this about faith, “Now
faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Believers have assurance and certainty
that non-believers can never know.
So, before I get too long-winded in making my point (which
my wife will say that I already have done), I guess what I am trying to convey
is that the pursuit of joy and meaning in life comes down to three
choices. I loved multiple choice test
questions because there was always a chance that I might get the right answer
with a wild guess even when I was clueless.
This question of finding meaning and purpose in the way we live is far
too important to make a wild guess. Nevertheless,
we can choose, as the practicing non-believer would choose, to live a life of
total uncertainty and unbelief in anything which usually leads to despair (notice
I am not using the word atheist as some non-believers are actually agnostics
(which means they are not sure whether God is real or not and are just
uncertain…as the tattoo on Anthony Bourdain’s arm suggests).
The second choice is stated in the article I shared where
the non-believer chose to live a life of believing only in the reality of the
moment. This also can lead to a negative
outcome as one has no real regard of the future since the only reality they can
know is now. This belief usually leads
to Epicureanism which Paul referred to in Corinthians 15:32, saying what is the
point if there is no resurrection we might as well follow the philosophy; “let
us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will be dead.”
Thank goodness there is a third choice. One does not have to live a life of hopeless despair
and unbelief or a life of Epicureanism pleasure seeking. The third choice is to live a life of faith
in Christ. Jesus speaks of living in the
moment because we are trusting tomorrow to Him.
Jesus speaks of living a full and abundant life as we make the most of
today loving our fellowman as we love ourselves and loving God with all our
heart soul and mind. Jesus speaks of eternal
hope and rewards when we live a life of faith.
So, while some may struggle with living a life of
meaningless uncertainty or a life of empty pleasure seeking...I may be a
product of the Mississippi public school system but I think the smart choice is
number three; choosing to live each day as a life of faith in Christ.
