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Meaningless...

             Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. (1 Timothy 1:6)

I’ve started reading the first of two books on simplicity as a spiritual discipline, which means that my mind is like a puppy with six new toys. There are a several key words that I want to explore. Today’s verse has one of them: meaningless. It has a partner with which it must be juxtaposed: meaningful. As a writer of speculative fiction, I’m sensitive to the charge of meaningless words. I make up words. Fiction isn’t fact, and therefore (to some) is meaningless babble. As a Christian, I’m also accused of speaking of things that have no meaning or reality because I reject “sacred” worldly doctrines.  

To be meaningful, according to the dictionary, means “having a serious, important, or useful quality or purpose.” So meaningless words are those that are not-serious, unimportant, having no useful quality and/or no useful purpose. The difficulty is “the eye of the beholder.” In our current society, it seems as if the second anyone declares that something has meaning, we are required to invest as much meaning as they claim into it.

We may need to start within our subjective perspectives and allow things to sort themselves out. What gives your life meaning? Chances are good that “God” is one of your answers and He is the ultimate Giver of meaning. Does your life reflect this? After God, what next? I have quite a few ideas for me. Without creativity, life would be a prison. Without practicality, life would be a mess. Without community, we’ve wasted our time. And without simplicity, life is fractured. Without beauty, life is barren.

Those might not be your list. For some people, family, work, evangelism, entertainment might be more important. Others might think ecology, social activism, or science could be keys. This is the challenge for today: make two lists. The first is of things that have great meaningfulness in  your life. The second is for things that are meaningless.

After that, the door is open. One of the things I’ve done already today is to pick up litter as I walked the dog, because that made the world more beautiful, which made it a meaningful task.

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