23rd July, 2008

NILS VON KALM

It was the French mathematician Blaise Pascal who wrote of the God-shaped hole that lies within every human heart. Whilst it is said that Pascal may have originated the phrase, Augustine also hinted at the concept in his Confessions, saying that “Man [sic] is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you. He bears about him the mark of death…But still, since he is a part of your creation, he wishes to praise you. The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.”

In the 21st century we seem to have lost sight of what we are living for. We are so busy that we have lost the realisation that our lust for material gain to fill the void within is what controls our lives. Study after study has shown over the years that material wealth simply does not fill the emptiness. In fact, further evidence from the Australian Unity wellbeing index shows that, in Australia, once people start earning over $100,000 their level of happiness does not change. That means you can be a multi-millionaire and not be any happier than someone who is on a $100,000 salary.

This seems to be true right across the Western world. The most recent evidence of this was in an article in Sight describing how the suicide rate in Japan is going through the roof. In that country which has produced such amazing technological advancement, over 100 people every day are killing themselves. The article states that: "Michael Zielenziger, a former Tokyo-based foreign correspondent, comments in an article in the Asian Times Online, "These worrying statistics demonstrate that Japanese society and its leaders have not done enough to consider the fruits of their economic prosperity...its citizens are searching for greater meaning."

Such tragic statistics echo the research findings of American psychologist Martin Seligman. In the book The Science of Optimism and Hope, Seligman provides strong evidence showing that the rate of depression in Western nations has risen tenfold since the Second World War. Long ago it was said that life does not consist in the abundance of one's possessions. Nothing seems to have changed.

All the evidence seems to point to the conclusion that having it all simply does not fill the void deep within the human heart. In their song Numb back in the early 1990s, U2 may have given us the answer we all want to hear when they prophetically told us that ‘too much is not enough’. No wonder their conclusion was one of feeling numb. ‘What will it profit someone if they gain the whole world yet lose their very self?’. These words spoken 2,000 years ago by Jesus of Nazareth have never been more relevant.

Whether we are conscious of it or not, everything we do in our lives is done with the aim of filling the void within. We all act with purpose, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. One of the main purposes in our lives in the Western world is material gain. We live in a world that is defined by economics. Sociologist Richard Eckersley says that in this era of plenty, the good life is defined by how well off we are materially. He calls this the ‘moral force of the economy’. Yet at the same time, he points out, “rates of psychological and social problems among youth have risen in almost all developed nations over the past 50 years".

"Highly-publicised problems like youth suicide and drug-overdose deaths are only the tip of an iceberg of suffering among the young, with recent studies showing that a fifth to a third of young people today experience significant psychological distress or disturbance," he writes.

The search for fulfilment has been part of our make-up ever since humanity came into existence. There is a sense within us humans that, either consciously or subconsciously, recognises that everything in life hints at a lack of completion. And so we try to complete our lives by taking that dream holiday to get away from it all. But eventually we have to come back. Or we try to fill the void with money, and we find that the promises of security only make us more insecure because the more stuff we have the more scared we are that someone is going to take it; we try to fill it with sex, and we find that we feel more lonely and disconnected than ever; and we try to fill it with our own ego and an exaggerated sense of our own importance, and we find that in the process we exclude others and feel apart from instead of a part of. I have done some of these things myself in my life and while they satisfy for a time, they inevitably come with consequences and in the end I have been left with a sense of dissatisfaction that was not there previously.

We live in a society that tells us that we are the most important person in the world. The search for meaning is a search for self and we are told that we will be happy when we fill our lives with ‘stuff’. But what if life is to be found in emptying ourselves, in giving and sacrificing for others? People invariably say that it is in giving to others that they find the most satisfaction. This is why ANZAC Day has taken on an almost religious importance, because it is a day on which we remember the sacrifices of long ago, sacrifices made for us. We hold a deep respect for those who are the real heroes who suffered extraordinary hardship and who paid the ultimate price. Every year we remember, ‘lest we forget’ and that ‘greater love has no one, than to lay down their life for their friend’. This quote, taken straight from the Gospel of John (15:13), can be seen at every ANZAC memorial. A sense of Australian identity is found in the knowledge that it was the concept of giving that shaped the foundation of what it means to be Australian.

It seems that meaning is to be found in giving, not in trying to fill the void within by trying to make ourselves happy. It is when we forget ourselves that humanity is at its best; when we look to something outside of our own immediate comfort. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl tells of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps who were able to survive against all the odds because they thought of a loved one or of something they would do once they were freed. Their thoughts were always directed at something outside of themselves.

The cry in every human heart for meaning also ultimately involves a desire for connection, a desire for relationship with someone outside of ourselves. We cannot and do not live apart from relationship. We are a species that longs for acceptance and a sense of belonging. Scientists tell us that if a baby is given all the right nutrients in its first months but does not receive love and affection, it will die. Acceptance and love are as necessary to our survival as food and shelter.

The question of meaning, of ‘Why are we here?’ plagues the human heart from our first cry as a newborn until the day our mortal bodies return to the dust. When a child reaches about the age of two, it will invariably pester its parents and anyone within earshot with the question ‘Why?’. Our curiosity starts at an early age and continues until the day we die. It is our deep sense of the lack of completion of things that drives us throughout our whole lives to search for the eternal.

Our search for meaning is nothing other than a spiritual search. Richard Eckersley, who does not claim allegiance to any faith and would probably best describe himself as agnostic, emphasises the importance of spirituality to help people cope with life.

“Human well-being is associated with the personal, social and spiritual relationships that give our lives a moral texture and a sense of meaning - of self-worth, belonging, identity, purpose and hope," he writes. "Psychologists have shown that positive life meaning is related to strong religious beliefs, self-transcendent values, membership of groups, dedication to a cause and clear life goals...but spirituality offers something deeper. It is central to the age-old questions about the meaning of life: Who am I? Where have I come from? Why am I here? It represents the broadest and deepest form of connectedness. It is the most subtle, and so easily corrupted by societies, yet perhaps the most powerful. It is the only form that transcends our personal circumstances, social situation and the material world, and so can sustain us through the trouble and strife of mortal existence.”

In these postmodern times we are seeing a plethora of different spiritualities, ranging from an increasing interest in eastern religions to a rise in Pentecostal Christianity. Many people even try to find their fulfilment in a mixture of certain aspects of different belief systems. God’s Squad founder, John Smith, has said that when he was preaching in the late 1960s and early 70s, the spiritual landscape in Australia was that of a desert. Not many people wanted anything to do with anything spiritual despite the publicity that was generated by such celebrities as The Beatles visiting their spiritual guru in India. In the 21st century however, Smith says that we are living in a spiritual jungle where anything goes because there is no longer a meta-narrative or a larger story which points to something real outside of ourselves on which we can anchor our lives.

In a society with no meta-narrative we are left to create our own meanings. And as we look at the sorts of social statistics that we are confronted with now, we see evidence that the post-Christian age has not found an answer. On the contrary, the words of Jesus are more relevant in the 21st century than ever. Here was a man who claimed that anyone who hears his words is like one who builds their house on rock. The storms came and the wind blew and the house stood firm through it all. But the one who had no anchor to their life, the one who built their house on sand, saw their house come crashing down in a crumbling heap as soon as the storms of life came along (Matt 7:24-27). “Don’t store for yourselves treasures on Earth” Jesus said; “store up treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy” (Matt 6:19-20).

For 2,000 years the words and life of Jesus have stood like a beacon over the history of humanity, providing life and meaning to whoever would dare to follow. When our souls are plugged into a loving God, a God of grace who accepts us despite what we may have done to hurt others and ourselves, it is then that we will begin to understand the paradox that the void is filled when we empty ourselves, that living is in dying, receiving is in giving, greatness is in humility, and victory is in surrender. Coming to faith has been described as a coming home, a rediscovering of that which was lost. I have found this to be true in my own life, because I know my weaknesses and I know that I need help from an outside source. Jesus is that source for me. He ticks the boxes and allows me to accept and live with the mystery of all that I still don’t understand.

SOURCES
Augustine, Confessions, Book I, section I. Augustine, Confessions, Translated by R. S. Pine-Coffin (London: Penguin, 1961), 21.
Australian Unity Wellbeing Index Report April 2008,
Eckersley, R. ‘What’s it all about?’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25th March, 2000
Eckersley, R. ‘From the mouth of a cave, a vision of a moral universe’, The Age, 8th April, 2000, News Extra

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