Thursday, October 12, 2017

Nothing really matters

This morning I had to take our dog to the veterinarian for a checkup. As I waited with my nervous little dog in the waiting room two old men were visiting and one said to the other, "Well, nothing really matters anyway." 

My first thoughts were of a Queen song, but then I imagined he had to be either a realist, a pragmatist, a fatalist or a Nihilist.  Since he was old I thought him a fatalist resolved to his situation but I wondered.

Why would he believe nothing really matters?  What had brought him to that point?  Did he lose faith somewhere? Did he just give up?  It was such a shocking statement from the lips of an older gentleman that I began to wonder what had brought him to that dark place.

But, as I thought about it I realized it might be a liberating place as well.  If you aren't clinging to anything, aren't expecting anything, then you aren't surprised or disappointed by anything either.  It might be a great defense mechanism for him.  "Well, nothing really matters so who cares that the house burned to the ground."

But we are not left at such a sad place.  God has come and shouted to the world that life has meaning, we are not just animals doomed to death and oblivion, but we are the loved creations of God.  And his love brought him here to tell us, "YOU really matter!"  And then he proved it by giving everything to give us life.

The grand and glorious declaration of a loving God is that there is hope, there is a purpose, we are loved....and it matters!





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