What is life? and what we have to do with it?

Answer 1

life is a journey and we have to travel it without harming other persons and experiencing different things....

Answer 2

Life is the recycling of free energy at the surface of a planet. What we have to do with it? We live it. We are it. Someday we will all be gone. That's it.

Answer 3

Life! What's the point?

It still happens. It happens for the silliest of reasons. It happens even to the 'bold' and 'beautiful' among us. South India accounts for a higher rate of suicide in South Asia. The question of life's meaning and purpose need to be answered in the affirmative. We all need something to live for (and perhaps die-hard for). We seek fulfillment in everything we do and any failure to find it leaves a small tear in the fabric of our lives. The past, the present and the future haunt us and yet we pretend that all is well with us… till we have those moments unmasks all our pretence. Often times, life seems meaningless. Not surprisingly, contemporary art forms paint life with nihilistic shades as they re-open the question of meaning in life.

Ecclesiastes raises the question, 'Life! What's the point?' and faces it head on. It questions our premises, our conclusions and all our arguments at the heart of contemporary culture. Reading Ecclesiastes is never been a pleasant experience, and I am sure it never will be. The book presents a grim picture of life, and despair stares at you all the way through. Its detailed analysis of life questions every possible answer we may offer to the question of life's meaning and purpose. Worse, the author nearly exhausts all possibilities. On the final analysis, it concludes that life is meaningless – a mere chasing after the wind. Believe me! The book smacks of a contagious pessimism, and if you aren't careful you could be living its question: What's the point? Every thing is a chasing after the wind. You could well spend the rest of your life in a downward spiral, encountering the same question to every answer.

I've read Ecclesiastes at various stages of my life and I have drawn different lessons. With each passing year and growing faith you begin to see-hear and feel differently, as you are able to look through the prism of new experience. Can we conclude, " Everything is a chasing after the wind"? Well…you don't have to always see the cup half empty. You could see it half the cup full and that for me is the value of Ecclesiastes for our times. It does not blatantly declare life is meaninglessness. It only reminds us that all human pursuits for pleasure, power and possessions are meaningless. It is a powerful reminder that there is something more to life than the pursuit of fame, fortune and entertainment.

Why is it so easy for us to give up at the face of meaninglessness? In Spiderman-2, Peter Parker quits being Spiderman. He quits, not because he loses his powers, but because he loses his resolve. Being Spiderman is meaningless, after all he loses his girlfriend MJ, feels miserable for his friend, whose dad was killed by Spiderman and feels responsible for the death of Uncle Ben. He dumps his suit in a trashcan and returns to be just Peter Parker – not the friendly neighborhood Spiderman who swings through New York City fighting crime. Life! What's the point?

However, Peter Parker has his moment of truth. Suddenly, he is grasped by a concern that gives meaning, goal, direction and purpose. Peter Parker feels the need to save New York City. He is now willing to let go MJ, and all his dreams.

What makes the difference? What makes us see beyond ourselves? I think Peter Parker's moment of truth dawns when he is told: "I believe there is a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength and makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride even though we have to give up the things we want the most, even our dreams."

Christians answer the question, "Life! What's the point?" differently. We believe that when we are grasped by the gospel, we are grasped by meaning and purpose for life. Our context demands heroes and heroines of faith – courageous self-sacrificing people setting examples. The gospel keeps us honest, gives us strength and makes us noble and finally allows us to die with pride, even though we have to give up things we want the most, even our dreams. It is by living the power of the gospel that we find answers to the question of meaning in life. Not coincidently Jesus said, "The one who finds life will lose it; and the one who loses life for my sake will find it" (Mt. 10:39). This till day remains the key to understanding the meaning and purpose of life.