Purpose & Meaning
There’s one more sphere of transformation that goes beyond the centuries-old proverb of healthy, wealthy, and wise: purpose & meaning. These are enormous factors in human flourishing not only in today’s world but throughout history. People not only desire but need to have meaning in their lives; it is core to who we are as human beings. And it is often in fulfilling one’s purpose that people gain meaning.
Meaning is core to who we are as human beings.
Human beings have long gained meaning from religion and spirituality through religious organizations, including churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and all other places of worship. Modern-day research, though, demonstrates how very much this contributes to human flourishing. Decades of research at The Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Center, led by Dr. Harold Koenig makes this connection clear:
Significant findings from CSTH’s research suggest links between religious involvement and lower rates of depression, faster recovery from depression, lower anxiety, greater well-being, improved coping with stress, positive personality changes, greater social support, lowered substance abuse (alcohol), reduced cigarette smoking, shorter hospital stays, shorter nursing home stays, better physical functioning, better cognitive functioning, lower blood pressure, less hypertension, better immune functions, and greater longevity.[i]
Despite the transformational benefits, churches et al are not by nature businesses – even though many operate as such (and parachurches often are) – and I hesitate to see them run by the principles of this or any other business book. There is no doubt, however, that people seek and gain transformations from religion. Christianity is very explicit on this, as with Apostle Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”[ii] As the late novelist David Foster Wallace, said in a 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, “In the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”[iii] Or as Bob Dylan put it in the refrain to his song “Gotta Serve Somebody”:
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody[iv]
Who or what you worship and serve gives your life meaning. So choose carefully.
Without meaning, people perish, as the late holocaust survivor Dr. Viktor Frankl made clear in his seminal book Man’s Search for Meaning.[v] On the cusp of World War II, the Austrian psychologist developed what he called “logotherapy”, which has been called “The Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy”.[vi] In short:
Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life.[vii]
Frankl basically did his own sociological study while being consigned to several concentration camps during World War II, including Auschwitz. Frankl found that the primary determination of which Jews survived concentration camps and which did not was whether or not they found meaning in their lives, even in the most depraved of circumstances imaginable. He further argued that “the quest for meaning is the key to mental health and human flourishing”.[viii]
Think you cannot flourish without being healthy? Ask the quadriplegic painter Joni Eareckson Tada. Think you cannot flourish without being wealthy? Ask Mahatma Gandhi. Think you cannot flourish without being wise? Ask a parent of anyone with Down’s syndrome. Ah, but think you cannot flourish without meaning – and you’d be exactly right.
==================================== BOX ===================================
Purpose & Meaning
The most obvious category in this sphere is religious organizations, including churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and all other places of worship, plus parachurch and other such organizations. People also seek to define and live out their purpose & find meaning in their lives through myriad other means, including family, relationships, and communities; memberships and affiliations; contributions of money and time; what they buy, use, and experience; and certainly not least, work. People seek flourishing from this sphere via guidance from pastors, spiritual advisors, gurus, counselors, coaches, shamans, and so forth.
==================================== BOX ===================================