Making Meaning
Sep
13
Written by:
9/13/2010 7:57 AM
My buddy, Rich Melheim, asked me a question about meaning. Here was my response. How do you make meaning?
Meaning is not something you make--meaning is something that makes you.
A mother of a three year old said her meaning is made when she slows
down and looks--when she really sees things and lives in the moment. It
seemed to be about focus for her.
Relationships have always been central-not that you can't make meaning
when you are alone (are you ever really alone?) I remember very
distinctly the moment when my faith became something I embraced as
opposed to living off of my parents faith. I was at a camp and the
speaker had just challenged us. I spent a good half hour-if not
longer-in silent time with God. Very meaningful as a relationship with
the Lord began to blossom.
Deanna described meaning in two ways. It is in the unexpected that we
find meaningful moments. A car ride through the snow that took us off
course and was less than ideal became a car ride that we love to
remember because the unexpected happened. But she also described those
moments and events that we spend a great deal of time planning and
getting ready for. Weddings and births of course-but our children's
birthday parties more recently. One is unexpected and one is
anticipated. Perhaps they are both meaningful because they are a
break from the routine.
Meaning is about living in the moment and not letting past memories or
future worries steal your attention.
A life without meaning is no life at all. I think there are times in
life when the moment is so pregnant with possibility and when time slows
that you become aware of the grandeur of that moment. The big events in
life to be sure. But also the ordinary times when the unplanned occurs
and forces you to embrace each second. For me, the meaningful moments
encompass a raw emotion that can't be filtered or edited as I do in the
less meaningful moments. It's those times when I let what I'm really
thinking/feeling show instead of passing it through a filter first. The
funeral of my grandfather, for instance, is still fresh in my memory and
I was hardly a teenager. Those moments when I was falling in love with
my wife-the silly dates and the times when the world stopped as we were
together. That is the meaning that has created my life.
How do you make meaning? How can you make more meaning in your life? And how does Christ enter into those moments and your journey to provide deeper meaning? It's a question worth pondering for a while...