I can say the answer is not 42.

I can say that the answer is not black and white, and there is no cookie cutter approach to finding it.

You can find something that feels rather good fast, but will it last?

I often find that such things do not.

Even when there is the hope that they will last.

Good intent does not guard against an unpleasant end.

Even though the road to hell is paved with good intentions… why is it that people often stay on the path that is wide?

Others are there.

“I have company here.”

Yes, you do… yet you will find that there is very little room to grow and move about.

Personally, I like my space.

I need people like anyone else, but I have learned it is better to be civil with yourself when you are alone.

It isn’t bad to say that you are happy, and no one has to be around.

Sure, there is God. You can run from him but his presence is everywhere, so pulling a Jonah isn’t going to win you any rewards.

Perhaps among friends that can make you less than what you truly can be, but even within….

You might just have a feeling that you are cheating yourself out of something grand.

Maybe you embrace that punishing feeling.

I can understand that feeling at least.

But God holds much higher thoughts for us than we often hold for ourselves.

Yet often the god we follow and find meaning in is the negative thoughts we have about ourselves.

I definitely deal with that, but I am getting better.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways,

    and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isa 55:8-9, WEB

His ways are higher yes, but let us not forget.

He walked on roads where we walked. He was able to be understood. He was flesh and bone.

Even in the midst of squalor and the neglect common to that error.

He exhorted. He supported. And in the meekness of his soul meaning was yielded unto many.

What is the meaning that was found in him?

His love.

He appreciated the people in front of him.

The blind, the deaf, the sick, the weak, the young, women, children, and men that took a fall.

He stood for all of them, with a smile deeper than the ocean. And a sincerity rarer than platinum.

Meaning is found often when one’s life is seen to be appreciated in a way that is felt by the one who lives in that life.

Anyone of us can acknowledge a complement, but who takes it warmly into their heart and says “I feel that what has been identified of me in this positive way speaks of my heart”?

Few.

Almost always we have to find some proxy to stand for us and hold our values for us to show for all.

Why?

In our imperfections there is a very deep sense of shame.

Yet… in our weaknesses the meekness of Christ can show all the truer and richer.

He desires to love us, yet the source of life and meaning is rejected far too often.

Why? For what true reason do we really have to reject his gifts?

It’s not like he left us without his Spirit on earth to aid and help us live.

In whatever you do, whether it be in words or in deeds, do so in the character of Christ Jesus – through him. Giving thanks to God the Father.

Paraphrase of Col. 3:17.

It is by him that we act like him.

HE HELPS US DO THE RIGHT THING!

If…

We walk with him.

He has more meaning than could ever be put on a page.

He is good meaning personified.

And…

Every good thing in him is yes and amen.

You are good, and you are found in him as well.

Peace.