Maria Stenvinkel asked a question many sidestep in life.
What is your greatest fear?
Answers came from around the globe. Many answered with predictable answers, which are top-of-mind right now.
- Fear of dying alone.
- Losing a job.
Yet, 20% of the respondents went deeper. Their fear was “living without a purpose.”
- “My greatest fear is to go through life living small but not realizing it until it’s too late.”
- “My greatest fear would be missing out on my purpose here on earth. … I know I have a purpose that I am not yet serving.”
- “To go through life without leaving a positive mark.”
- “My greatest fear is regretting all that I didn’t do, as I lay in my hospital bed as an elderly man.”
Such fear is born of a spiritual void in life. They know more is out there, but they don’t know how to find it.
Jesus reminded people that their emptiness had a remedy.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)
The tragedy is people who spend their lives and still feel they have nothing. It is a bad bargain. The gospel is not about going through the motions, but finding why God made you, your purpose in life, and where your life is headed. All are questions to which our age is dying to have the answer.
Our goal is not to be happy, but to let God fill the hole and make life worth living. That’s the message we should live, and we should spread.
-Robert G. Taylor-
