The Meaning We Create ...

So often, in conversations, a deceptively simple question arises:

What is the meaning of life?

And almost immediately, answers begin to gather around it. Philosophers offer theories, theologians offer faith, nihilists question whether meaning exists at all, and the rest of us search through experience for an answer that feels true.

Among the many answers I have encountered, one has stayed with me for its simplicity:

Life is an opportunity—an opportunity to create meaning.

Perhaps life does not arrive with its meaning already written into it. Let us therefore not pretend to be like those little scout boys with a compass on a treasure hunt seqrching for meaning in life.

Perhaps meaning is something we are invited to create. And that is where purpose enters the story.

Purpose is the direction we consciously choose to give our existence. Once we discover what deeply matters to us, life becomes the opportunity to pursue it, serve it, build around it—and, through that pursuit, create meaning.

This may explain one of life's fascinating paradoxes. Two people may be born into similar circumstances, live through the same period of history, encounter comparable opportunities and adversities, and yet create entirely different lives.

The difference may not lie in the life they were given. It may lie in the purpose to which they gave their life.

Perhaps, then, the question is not merely: “What is the meaning of life?” A more powerful question might be: “What meaning will I create with the life I have been given?”

Now your search will be meaningful