The Meaning of Life

It's time for encouragement from Our Daily Bread. The devotional for today titled The Meaning of Life was written by Kenneth Peterson. A short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges tells of a Roman soldier, Marcus Rufus, who drinks from a secret river that purifies men of death. In time, though, Marcus realizes immortality wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Life without limits was life without significance. In fact, it is death itself that gives meaning to life.

Marcus finds an antidote, a spring of clear water. After drinking from it, he scratches his hand on a thorn and a drop of blood forms, signifying his restored mortality. Like Marcus, we too sometimes despair over the decline of life and the prospect of death. We agree that death gives significance to life, but this is where the stories diverge. Unlike Marcus, we know it's in Christ's death that we find the true meaning of our lives. With the shedding of his blood on the cross, Christ conquered death, swallowing it up in victory. For us, the antidote is in the living water of Jesus Christ. Because we drink that, all the rules of life, death, and life in mortal have changed. It's true we won't escape physical death, but that isn't the point. Jesus upends all our despair about life and death. In Christ, we're reassured with the hope of heaven and of meaningful joy in eternal life with him.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 50 through 58. I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality.

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where O death is your victory, where O death is your sting. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God.

He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Let's pray, O God, aging is so hard. Would you help us not to fear it or death, but to embrace each stage of life as part of your plan for us, then to celebrate your many promises about deliverance into eternal life with you? Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening. My name is Wes Ward, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.