What's it all about, Alfie?
“...Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge“ (Colossians 2:3b).
My Apple iPad contains a voice recognition application named Siri, Ask Siri any question and she offers an
answer. “Siri ... is
a life changer,” one reviewer wrote, “and this is only the beginning.”
One day, pursuing wisdom, I asked
Siri, “What is the meaning of life?” She answered, “42.”
“42” is an old philosophical joke,
based on Douglas Adams’ book, The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which he concludes, "The answer
to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42,” a claim that
has become more famous than the novel itself. Thoughtful people have worried
themselves into a frenzy trying to ascribe significance to the number and its
occurrences, but Adams himself claims the number has no meaning at all.
And that is the irony in the joke: “What is the meaning of life?” is a
question about which there are no meaningful answers.
Yet my heart cries out for answers: Who am i? What
is my purpose here on earth? And what is my ultimate destiny? These are the
questions that bewilder me.
Over the years I’ve caught glimpses
of abstract truth, but these days I’m looking beyond abstraction to something
more: the ideal made real—Jesus who knows,
thinks, feels, says and does the truth. That’s what Jesus meant when he
said “I myself am…the truth!”[1] (Cf., John 14:6).
So, I must sit at his feet and give him my heart’s attention and devotion. He has the answers to
life’s nagging questions. Through him I know who I am (God’s beloved child); what I am to do (my Father’s
perfect and perfecting will); and where I am going (to my Father’s
house, my last and everlasting home).
I have seen Truth and I am satisfied. Jesus,
not 42 (and not the Hokey Pokey), is what it's all about.
DHR
[1] Jesus made the person pronoun “I” strongly
emphatic. When Phillip said, “How can we know ultimate reality?” Jesus said, in
effect, “You’re looking at it." Likewise consider Pilate’s cynical question, “What
is truth?” when it was standing in front of him.
