Here is a simple answer.
1. You will receive a body.
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period of this time around.
2. You will learn lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of trial and error: Experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works."
4. A lesson is repeated until learned.
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end.
There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
6. 'There' is no better than 'here...'-
When your "there" has become a "here," you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7. Others are merely mirrors of you.
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you.
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie inside you.
The answers to Life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust.
10. You will forget all this.
2007-07-20 11:29:17
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answer #1
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answered by Yahoo! King 1
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42
2007-07-20 18:29:10
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answer #2
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answered by icemunchies 6
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don't make GOD angry of me
2007-07-20 18:33:30
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answer #3
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answered by bara'a 2
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What is the meaning of life?
What is the meaning of life? How can I find purpose, fulfillment, and satisfaction in life? Will I have the potential to accomplish something of lasting significance? So many people have never stopped to consider what the meaning of life is. They look back years later and wonder why their relationships have fallen apart and why they feel so empty even though they may have achieved what they set out to accomplish. One baseball player who made it to the baseball hall of fame was asked what he wished someone would have told him when he first started playing baseball. He replied, "I wish that someone would have told me that when you reach the top, there's nothing there." Many goals reveal their emptiness only after years have been wasted in their pursuit.
In our humanistic society, people pursue many purposes, thinking that in them they will find meaning. Some of these pursuits include: business success, wealth, good relationships, sex, entertainment, doing good to others, etc. People have testified that while they achieved their goals of wealth, relationships, and pleasure, there was still a deep void inside -- a feeling of emptiness that nothing seemed to fill.
The author of the biblical book of Ecclesiastes states this feeling when he said, "Meaningless! Meaningless!...Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." This author had wealth beyond measure, wisdom beyond any man of his time or ours, women in the hundreds, palaces and gardens that were the envy of kingdoms, the best food and wine, and had every form of entertainment available. And he said at one point, that anything that his heart wanted, he pursued. And yet he summed up "life under the sun" (life lived as though all there is to life is what we can see with our eyes and experience with our senses) is meaningless! Why is there such a void? Because God created us for something beyond what we can experience in the here-and-now. Solomon said of God, "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men..." In our hearts we are aware that this "here-and-now" is not all that there is.
In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we find that God created mankind in His image (Genesis 1:26). This means that we are more like God than we are like anything else (any other life form). We also find that before mankind fell into sin and the curse came upon the earth, the following things were true: (1) God made man a social creature (Genesis 2:18-25); (2) God gave man work (Genesis 2:15); (3) God had fellowship with man (Genesis 3:8); and (4) God gave man dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26). What is the significance of these items? I believe that God intended for each of these to add to our fulfillment in life, but all of these (especially man's fellowship with God) were adversely affected by man's fall into sin and the resulting curse upon the earth (Genesis 3).
In Revelation, the last book of the Bible, at the end of many other end-time events, God reveals that He will destroy this present earth and heavens as we know them and usher in the eternal state by creating a new heaven and a new earth. At that time, He will restore the full fellowship with redeemed mankind. Some of mankind will have been judged unworthy and cast in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:11-15). And the curse of sin will be done away with; there will be no more sin, sorrow, sickness, death, pain, etc. (Revelation 21:4). And believers will inherit all things; God will dwell with them, and they shall be His sons (Revelation 21:7). Thus, we come full circle in that God created us to have fellowship with Him; man sinned, breaking that fellowship; God restores that fellowship fully in the eternal state with those deemed worthy by Him. Now, to go through life achieving anything and everything only to die separated from God for eternity would be worse than futile! But God has made a way to not only make eternal bliss possible (Luke 23:43), but also this life satisfying and meaningful as well. Now, how is this eternal bliss and "heaven on earth" obtained?
MEANING OF LIFE RESTORED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
As hinted at above, real meaning both now and in eternity is found in one's restoring the relationship with God that was lost at the time of Adam and Eve's fall into sin. Today, that relationship with God is only possible through His Son, Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; John 1:12). Eternal life is gained when one repents of his/her sin (no longer wants to continue in it but wants Christ to change them and make them a new person) and starts relying on Jesus Christ as Savior (see the question “What is the plan of salvation?” for more information on this most important issue).
Now, real meaning in life is not found merely in finding Jesus as Savior (as wonderful as that is). Rather, real meaning in life is found when one begins to follow Christ as His disciple, learning of Him, spending time with Him in His Word, the Bible, communing with Him in prayer, and in walking with Him in obedience to His commands. If you are an unbeliever (or perhaps a new Believer) you are likely saying to yourself, "That doesn't sound very exciting or fulfilling to me!" But please read on just a little longer. Jesus made the following statements:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10b). “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).
What all of these verses are saying is that we have a choice. We can continue to seek to guide our own lives (with the result of living an empty life) or we can choose to pursue God and His will for our lives with a whole heart (which will result in having a life lived to the full, having the desires of your heart met, and finding contentment and satisfaction). This is so because our Creator loves us and desires the best for us (not necessarily the easiest life, but the most fulfilling).
In closing, I want to share an analogy borrowed from a pastor friend. If you are a sports fan and decide to go to a professional game, you can fork over a few dollars and get a "nose-bleed" seat in the top rows of the stadium or you can cough up a few hundred dollars and be up close and personal to the action. It is like that in the Christian life. Watching God work FIRSTHAND is not for the Sunday Christians. They haven't paid the price. Watching God work FIRSTHAND is for the whole-hearted disciple of Christ who has truly stopped pursuing his/her own desires in life so that he/she can be pursuing God's purposes in life. THEY have paid the price (complete surrender to Christ and His will); they are experiencing life to its fullest; and they can face themselves, their fellow man, and their Maker with no regrets! Have you paid the price? Are you willing to? If so, you will not hunger after meaning or purpose again.
2007-07-20 19:02:24
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answer #4
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answered by kwtechno 2
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The philosophical question "What is the meaning of life?" means different things to different people. The vagueness of the query is inherent in the word "meaning", which opens the question to many interpretations, such as: "What is the origin of life?", "What is the nature of life (and of the universe in which we live)?", "What is the significance of life?", "What is valuable in life?", and "What is the purpose of, or in, (one's) life?". These questions have resulted in a wide range of competing answers and arguments, from scientific theories, to philosophical, theological, and spiritual explanations.
These questions are separate from the scientific issue of the boundary between things with life and inanimate objects.
Popular beliefs
"What is the meaning of life?" is a question many people ask themselves at some point during their lives, most in the context "What is the purpose of life?" Here are some of the many potential answers to this perplexing question. The responses are shown to overlap in many ways but may be grouped into the following categories:
Survival and temporal success
...to live every day like it is your last and to do your best at everything that comes before you
...to be always satisfied
...to live, go to school, work, and die
...to participate in natural human evolution, or to contribute to the gene pool of the human race
...to advance technological evolution, or to actively develop the future of intelligent life
...to compete or co-operate with others
...to destroy others who harm you, or to practice nonviolence and nonresistance
...to gain and exercise power
...to leave a legacy, such as a work of art or a book
...to eat
...to prepare for death
...to spend life in the pursuit of happiness, maybe not to obtain it, but to pursue it relentlessly.
...to produce offspring through sexual reproduction (alike to participating in evolution)
...to protect and preserve one's kin, clan, or tribe (akin to participating in evolution)
...to seek freedom, either physically, mentally or financially
...to observe the ultimate fate of humanity to the furthest possible extent
...to seek happiness and flourish, experience pleasure or celebrate
...to survive, including the pursuit of immortality through scientific means
...to attempt to have many sexual conquests (as in Arthur Schopenhauer's will to procreate)
...to find and take over all free space in this "game" called life
...to seek and find beauty
...to kill or be killed
...No point. Since having a point is a condition of living human consciousness. Animals do not need a point to live or exist. It is more of an affliction of consciousness that there are such things as points, a negative side to evolutionary development for lack of better words.
Wisdom and knowledge
...to master and know everything
...to be without questions, or to keep asking questions
...to expand one's perception of the world
...to explore, to expand beyond our frontiers
...to learn from one's own and others' mistakes
...to seek truth, knowledge, understanding, or wisdom
...to understand and be mindful of creation or the cosmos
...to lead the world towards a desired situation
...to satisfy the natural curiosity felt by humans about life
Ethical
...to express compassion
...to follow the "Golden Rule"
...to give and receive love
...to work for justice and freedom
...to live in peace with yourself and each other, and in harmony with our natural environment
...to protect humanity, or more generally the environment
...to serve others, or do good deeds
Religious and spiritual
...to find perfect love and a complete expression of one's humanness in a relationship with God
...to achieve a supernatural connection within the natural context
...to achieve enlightenment and inner peace
...to become like God, or divine
...to glorify God
...to experience personal justice (i.e. to be rewarded for goodness)
...to experience existence from an infinite number of perspectives in order to expand the consciousness of all there is (i.e. to seek objectivity)
...to be a filter of creation between heaven and hell
...to produce useful structure in the universe over and above consumption (see net creativity)
...to reach Heaven in the afterlife
...to seek and acquire virtue, to live a virtuous life
...to turn fear into joy at a constant rate achieving on literal and metaphorical levels: immortality, enlightenment, and atonement
...to understand and follow the "Word of God"
...to discover who you are
...to resolve all problems that one faces, or to ignore them and attempt to fully continue life without them, or to detach oneself from all problems faced
Philosophical
...to give life meaning
...to participate in the chain of events which has led from the creation of the universe until its possible end (either freely chosen or determined, this is a subject widely debated amongst philosophers)
...to know the meaning of life
...to achieve self-actualisation
...all possible meanings have some validity
...life in itself has no meaning, for its purpose is an opportunity to create that meaning, therefore:
...to die
...to simply live until one dies (there is no universal or celestial purpose)
...nature taking its course (the wheel of time keeps on turning)
...whatever you see you see, as in "projection makes perception"
...there is no purpose or meaning whatsoever
...life may actually not exist, or may be illusory )
...to contemplate "the meaning of the end of life"
Other
...to contribute to collective meaning ("we" or "us") without having individual meaning ("I" or "me")
...to find a purpose, a "reason" for living that hopefully raises the quality of one's experience of life, or even life in general
...to participate in the inevitable increase in entropy of the universe
...to make conformists' lives miserable
...to make life as difficult as possible for others (i.e. to compete)
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2007-07-21 04:21:30
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answer #5
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answered by Jayaraman 7
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