Neal Pollard
Big question! Apparently, it is at the top of all questions people ask around the world every month, gauging from internet search engine queries. According to dailysearchvolume.com, it spikes “with cultural moments…annual reflection periods…academic calendars…and headline- driven uncertainty.” It “is timeless, cross-cultural, and frequently resurfaced by media references, classroom assignments, life transitions, and news cycles that provoke reflection.” Whether or not we use those exact words, all of us spend a lifetime with that question at the heart of everything we are and all we do.
What does the question imply?
EXISTENCE. We are alive and aware. We exist, and because we exist we want to know why. We can observe much about “life.” It is brief. It has joy and sorrow. It is not always what we want it to be and thought it would be, and we may have to overcome unexpected and adverse things. But there is no way around it. We exist. We are here.
EXPLANATION. Was it random chance? Was it an accident from a cause that did not have me in mind? An unlimited number of “what” questions drive the original question. It is consummately unsatisfying to believe or conclude that there is no answer. The result of such aimless existence is despair, depression, apathy, and a certain fatalistic emptiness, if we accept the consequences of purposeless position.
EXCLUSIVENESS. At the very least, by asking what “is” life’s meaning, we are saying that while there may be many responsibilities and lesser pursuits something is premier and preeminent. There is an ultimate meaning. Discovering and pursuing that should take center stage and demand our highest attention and investment of our basic resources (time, money, and energy). It leads us to ask, could money, pleasure, fame, or education be the answer? Yet, countless people have made that their “why” only to experience utter emptiness at the end of life.
EXPECTATION. We want an answer or we would not ask. Nobody wants to hear, “I don’t know” or “it does not matter.” Life coaches, self-help organizations, mentors, support groups, community, and endless other entities exist to fill the hole induced by our question. We believe we can find it, we want to know, and then we want to do what we can to accomplish our quest with success. We wake up each day wanting to live with significance.
What if there was a resource that seriously, meaningfully, and logically explained an exclusive purpose for our existence and shaped our expectation? It would have to be internally coherent, consistent, and consequential. What if I were to tell you that a single source fully answered the most frequently asked question people ask every day? Would you want to know more about it?
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