This weekend’s wisdom comes from a philosopher whose writing echoes what we have read in Ecclesiastes, except, sadly, without any perspective of hope. Emil Cioran, an atheist, wants his readers to stop fooling themselves and to face the stark meaninglessness of life. That’s a good idea. For you must know you are in darkness if you are to see the light. Cioran never saw the light, but he does compel us to recognise the darkness of life without God:
“Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows…If I were to be totally sincere, I would say that I do not know why I live…The answer probably lies in the irrational character of life which maintains itself without reason…My mission is to kill time, and time will kill me in its turn. How comfortable one is among murderers…Not to be born is undoubtedly the best plan of all. Unfortunately, it is within no one’s reach…. “What do you do from morning to night?” “I endure myself…The same feeling of not belonging, of futility, wherever I go…What attracts me is elsewhere, and I don’t know where that elsewhere is.”
We were made for God, and we will forever be restless until we find ourselves in him. Cioran’s tragic testimony helps to polarise the options before us: to join the meaningless rat-race or to embrace God’s purpose. We make that choice in how we approach each day.
Commit yourself to serving God’s purpose today.
Read Jeremiah 17:5-10.
