Does purpose come from meaning?
Or does meaning come from purpose?
Meaning: the personal force that encompasses that which we love and hate. A meaningful event is such because it holds power to influence that which we care about. Meaning is an attribute of external objects.
Purpose: the intended direction of personal action. The driving force behind everything we do. Purpose is an attribute of internal choices.
My gut wants to say that the reality could be both – but I am having trouble reconciling the problems. I do, however, see clearly the conundrum of my faith, in this context.
God gives me purpose, but not meaning. The world gives me meaning, but not purpose.
I love dearly that purpose that God has shown me, but I fail to see how it is worthy with how meaningless it feels so far. The world, likewise, is showing me what it is to be human, what it means to be this incredible structure that I am – but the world has yet to show me anything beyond self-destruction in its ways, defeating the very purpose of life.
Watching Iron Man made me think a bit about what modern guys idealize. Tony Stark achieved his lifestyle through intellectual mastery – with his mental faculties, he obtained fame, fortune, and sex, the pinnacle of what the world considers valuable goals. But these forces are so fleeting – so ultimately meaningless. They are their own meaning. Pleasure for the sake of pleasure.
Which brings me to question the power of purpose in faith. Is it all just purpose for the sake of purpose, just as the world is meaning for the sake of meaning?
I crave, I crave, I crave!
Maybe… we all exist to make God happy. That is our purpose. And in order to accomplish that, we must be happy, so we can share our happiness with him. But that still leaves our purpose and meaning rather separate. Also, we humans like to think we’re on top, so saying that our only reason for existence is to serve another being (even a supernatural one) seems below us, somehow. Just musing.