A Purposeless Life

I just watched the movie Love Story for the first time, but instead of feeling sentimental or whatever, I felt sad. Not sad that the girl died of leukemia at the end (although that was sad). I was actually sad at the purposelessness of these lovers' lives.

Jennifer and Oliver were consumed with each other-- they refused to have a priest officiate their marriage because they weren't "into that stuff." They lived for one another, for pleasure, for fun. Their lives seemed empty. Oliver got a great job, Jennifer liked music, all trivial things, but their lives were bereft of depth.

When Jennifer got cancer and died, she had no hope to guide her through. She relied on a fallible human being, her husband, to be her god. After she died, Oliver was alone, and the movie ended.

40 years have passed since that movie was made. The outfits, the acting, the special effects, all of it is helplessly out of date, as should be expected. 40 years passed since Jennifer's character died.

I immediately go to this: what was it all for? So two lovers met and loved and one died prematurely? Is love between two humans an end in itself? Is it purposeful enough to sustain life? Are human relationships themselves the purpose of life?

I think there is so much more. Jennifer and Oliver had a good relationship, but their love bond is not enough to justify a life lived. It's not enough to justify her sudden passing.

Carnal love, honoring the god of the body and stomach, is empty. It points to another purpose. I left that movie hungering for what the movie left out... God.

It is a somber thought that our lives are purposeless, that we are alone in the universe. As far as I remember, I've believed in God, if for no other reason than it is the only thing that makes sense. As C.S. Lewis once said, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

Music, writing, love, art, Christmas snow, etc. are beautiful-- but not in and of themselves. They are breathtaking and almost existential. They point to something else, something greater, something Great.

Atheism is a hopeless belief system. In it, there is nothing more, nothing redemptive, nothing beautiful for a greater purpose. Love between two people is beautiful-- but only because it mimics God's love.

There is something so much greater to life, and this movie suffocated my soul from air. An existence without God is suffocating. God has placed a donut-shaped hole in our hearts, a God-sized hole. That God-shaped hole aches when we see a beautiful sunset or love someone else.

God spoke the world into creation, and He has plans for each one of us. He loves us individually, and our lives have a purpose. God knows the number of hairs on our heads. He thinks of us more than sand on a seashore. He has redeemed us, we are His. God loves us with an everlasting love. Someday, the randomness of this life will all make sense.

When I think of those realities, I breathe a sigh of relief-- somehow the universe makes sense that way. We're not just atomic particles who by some slim probability ended up alive and in a particular place and time. We are created by a perfect God, and we are not cosmic mistakes.

I feel sorry for the characters in the movie who worshipped their carnal desires and lived godless lives, only to end in seemingly meaningless tragedy. There is so much more to life.