A Second Secret to Finding Meaning
Justin Camp
4 min read ⭑
I want to tell you one of my favorite stories, and it begins with eight words: “There are no atheists in the fox holes.” The first person likely to have uttered that enduring phrase is one 1st Lt. William Cummings. He reportedly spoke it in a field sermon delivered to troops huddled in 1942 on the Philippine peninsula of Bataan, the site of the heroic and horrific American and Filipino last stand against Japanese invasion.
Lieutenant Cummings was an Army chaplain from San Francisco who went down as a legend of the Pacific Theater of World War II. Soldiers said he “radiated an unalterable goodness and gentleness.” But Cummings wasn’t naive toward the awfulness of war. He saw things. He experienced things. He knew fear. Real fear. Bone-shaking fear. For he too stood on that rocky promontory. He too stood among those brave but ill-fated men. Sick and starving. Outnumbered and surrounded. Fighting, yes, but really just waiting for inevitable death or capture by an overwhelming and unforgiving adversary.
Cummings also knew suffering. Real suffering. Hope-splintering suffering. After the Japanese Imperial Army captured him and 75,000 soldiers at Bataan, he was cast into the Japanese war prison system. He endured horrid conditions in hellish camps for nearly three years before being loaded onto a series of ships bound for Japan. Against all odds, he survived two aerial bombardments from American pilots unaware of those ships’ precious POW cargo. Two prison vessels sank; twice he was rescued. His Japanese captors then put the surviving prisoners onto a third. Conditions were so appalling, though, that before the vessel could reach Japan, Cummings succumbed to starvation and exposure.
An American serviceman described a moment belowdecks with Cummings in the days before the chaplain’s death, down in those freezing and filthy compartments:
“Suddenly from the depths of the hold I heard a voice like the voice of God. Father Cummings began to speak. The sound was clear and resonant and made me feel he was talking to me alone. The men became quiet.
'Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven....' The voice went on. Strength came to me as I listened to the prayer, and a certain calmness of spirit.
'Have faith,' he continued. 'Believe in yourselves and in the goodness of one another. Know that in yourselves and in those that stand near you, you see the image of God. For mankind is in the image of God.’”
Cummings influenced those around him with uncommon peace and confidence. Even as friendly bombs mercilessly fell, his faith never wavered. Even as death came for him in dankness and darkness, he held his ground. He stayed on mission.
So what’s the deal? Why was he different? How did Cummings come by this steadiness and serenity? This purpose and resolve?
Lieutenant Cummings was different because he knew a secret.
This week’s letter is the second in a two-part series on finding meaning in our lives. In last week’s letter, I mentioned that my men’s group is exploring the themes put forth in a set of books: “Falling Upward” by Richard Rohr, “Man's Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl and “How to Know a Person” and “The Second Mountain,” both by David Brooks:
Each asks a crucial question: how do we live meaningful lives? How do we live the kinds of lives that allow us to stand strong in difficult times? The kinds that allow us to endure times like these — rife with poverty and pestilence, conspiracy and corruption, subjugation and slavery, wars and rumors of war. The kinds that radiate calm and joy even when calm and joy make no sense. The kinds of lives that, at their ends, make us proud to have lived them.
Rohr, Frankl and Brooks all agree that among the key elements of such lives are these two: (1) loving well the people we’ve been given (and the people we’ve been given to) and (2) engaging in meaningful work throughout our lives.
Last week, we looked at loving well. This week, we’re tackling meaningful work.
So, what do I mean by the term? What makes work meaningful? Well, I think meaningful work looks like it did for Jesus. It involves loving and serving others — never ourselves alone — by the power of the Holy Spirit and for God’s eternal purpose of restoring and redeeming the entire world through love and kindness.
For Lieutenant Cummings, meaningful work meant encouraging and ministering to the men in his U.S. Army units in the Philippines. For Viktor Frankl, it meant caring for his “patients” in the Nazi concentration camps. For you and me, it means caring for and helping the people in our unique corners of the world — spouses, children, friends and all the other people God has burdened our hearts to love.
Finding and doing this kind of work makes all the difference.
This is the important part ==> Don’t think this doesn’t apply to you because of where you are or what you do. You can find meaning in any work because it is less about what we do and more about how we do it. If we do things for others they cannot do for themselves — or do things they’d prefer not to do — that’s the definition of service. And whether we’re cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, if we work with love and kindness in our hearts, then that service becomes meaningful. Whether we work at home or in restaurants, office buildings, construction sites, schools, hospitals or anywhere else, our love and kindness will transform our service into something that can bring goodness to the lives of others and meaning to our own.
Each of us must explore what “meaningful work” means for us, personally — things like purpose, design, calling and vocation. But, because these concepts are complex and mysterious, it helps to bring a wise guide or two along. So, if you’re ready to begin a journey into these topics, take a look at one or all of “Falling Upward,” “Man's Search for Meaning” and/or “The Second Mountain.” Two other of my favorites are “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation” by Parker Palmer and “Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work” by Timothy Keller.
Justin Camp is the editor-in-chief of Rapt Interviews. He also created the WiRE for Men devotional and wrote the WiRE Series for Men. His writing has been featured and seen on Charisma, Moody Radio, Focus on the Family, GOD TV, The Christian Post, Crosswalk, Belief.net, LifeWay Men and other media outlets.