Bonus: A Third Way to Find Meaning
Justin Camp
3 min read ⭑
Over the last several weeks (Part 1, Part 2), we’ve been exploring the concept of human meaning and trying to answer this question: How do we live meaningful lives? The kinds of lives that help us survive (and even thrive in) difficult times. The kinds that allow us to become “more than conquerors,” as Jesus makes possible and the apostle Paul envisioned in his letter to the Romans.
According to Richard Rohr in “Falling Upward,” Viktor Frankl in “Man’s Search for Meaning” and David Brooks in “The Second Mountain” and “How to Know a Person,” among the key elements of such lives are these: (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. But, according to Frankl, there is a third: (3) finding meaning in suffering.
You see, God wired the world such that hardship is unavoidable. Though it may seem like it at times, no one is spared. Difficult times come for us all. If someone appears never to struggle, either it’s a matter of timing (i.e., a time of suffering has passed or has not yet come) or it’s that they are adept at hiding their pain. But make no mistake, human suffering is universal.
What is not universal is what we do with our suffering or tell ourselves about it. What’s not universal is whether we can find meaning in our hardship. And like with (1) and (2) above, that makes all the difference.
Okay, I know. It’s hard to imagine anything good could possibly come from our personal tragedies. But it can. God tells us so. In Genesis, Joseph, who suffered greatly at the hands of his brothers, later told his family, “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” He said these words because he knew God turns all things toward his good purposes, even our suffering. As the apostle Paul wrote many years later, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.”
In Joseph’s story, God used the pain of abandonment and the hardship of being sold into slavery to alleviate the suffering of many. If Joseph’s older brothers hadn’t done these things to him, he wouldn’t have ended up in Egypt and been able to persuade Pharaoh to store enough grain ahead of the great famine.
When man fell so long ago in the Garden of Eden, things went wrong. Sin and rebellion entered the world. Death entered the world. Relationships broke. Everything broke. But then, after a time, Jesus entered the world — and when he did, he launched God’s massive project of setting things right. “God loves this created world so much,” wrote Timothy Keller, “that he sent his Son to redeem it” — “to massively and finally restore the material creation.”
Jesus’ work in the world is the work of setting everything right — everything — everything that’s gone wrong. Every hurt. Every injustice. Every mistake. Every sin. Every broken heart. Every broken life. Redeemed. Completely. Forever.
That includes, of course, your suffering and everyone else’s. And as he did with Joseph, Jesus can and will use your pain for good. He will turn it toward his purposes of healing and love. What we have to do is try and see his redemption work in his lives — and then get on board with it.
The reason why Frankl is such a compelling champion of this particular message is that he was able to find meaning and God’s good purposes even in the face of the evil of the Nazi concentration camps. If he could find it there, we can find meaning in all circumstances and under all conditions, even the most brutal.
Okay, so how do we do it? How do we find meaning in our suffering? Well, we need God's help. And it's easier than you might expect. A great place to start is to look around for others going through something similar. You see, the truths we learn in suffering are hard-earned. They can’t be gleaned from books or hearing other people’s stories. We must live them. But once we’ve suffered and survived, we gain authority to help others going through the same thing. We become skilled and trustworthy because our stories, our listening, our wisdom are rooted in authentic experience and true mercy.
When I was twelve years old, my parents pulled my sister and me into their bedroom and told us that my mom had been diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Nine years later, after so many waiting rooms, procedures, test results and ORs that I cannot count them, she died. And I was devastated. But through that searing pain, God softened my heart, deepened my empathy, increased my faith and equipped me to serve and love others facing their own tragedies.
Our sufferings are always preparation for callings — which are, at the highest level, to join Jesus in his work of healing, restoring and redeeming this world. And engaging in the things to which God calls us is a sure way of finding meaning and living meaningful lives.
I promise.
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.