Conquer Your Emptiness

What does it mean to be human? After all, I might be going out a a limb here, but I am fairly confident, in my limited intellect, that it is safe to say that we all consider ourselves to be — human!

In Psychology Today, David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., professor of philosophy at the University of England states,

“...being human is more like being a weed than it is like being water.” — David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D.

He explains that a “weed” is something that is commonly understood by almost everyone, yet scientifically cannot be defined nor identified. That is what he calls a “folk-category.” Well, that doesn’t help.

On a website called “Humans and Nature,” they say,

“How we see ourselves is the foundation for our values, our choices, our relationships with each other, and our relationship with the rest of nature.”

BBC Earth, in talking about evolution, says that this question, “unwraps the bundle of complexity, contradictions, and mystery that is a human life.” It goes on to say there that,

“Priests and poets, philosophers and politicians, scientists and artists have all sought to answer this ultimate puzzle, but all fell short, never able to fully capture the vastness of the human experience.”

Charles Darwin, in all that he changed with the stroke of his pen, in the minds of countless generations, never spoke a word about about how we experience being human. In fact, it would seem that Darwin, in the absence of any significance to the state of being human in any way, in his mind, wrote any significance out of our existence. But, isn’t significance — isn’t the sense that in at least some small way our lives matter — somewhere — somehow — to someone? Could this sense of insignificance to our very humanity be that which lends itself to the crime of humans against humans, of despondency that leads to suicide or self-mutilation, to mass shootings and depression? At the core of your existence, can you honestly deny that you want to matter — at least to someone?

The BBC article went on to state,

“It would be another 50 years before an Austrian doctor began to talk about the hidden forces of the subconscious mind, but even Sigmund Freud couldn’t provide an adequate explanation for consciousness. In fact, to date, no-one has come close to describing the sheer magnificent wonder of being alive. The electric surge we feel when we kiss a lover, the deep stirring of the soul when we listen to Mozart’s Requiem, and the full flowing joy of laughing uncontrollably with our closest friends as we share a joke.”

It seems that all of these perspectives, some of which we have recited over the four weeks, was reviewed for us in writing, by who the Bible calls the wisest world leader that had, or would ever live — King Solomon. He wrote the book of Ecclesiastes in order to himself, explore the very same question that we are considering today. He noted the fleeting nature of humanity’s endeavors in the first 11 verses of Ch. 1, the fleeting nature of wisdom to finish up that first chapter. In Ch. 2 he explores the fleeting contentment of pleasure, possessions, frivolous folly, and hard labor. The satisfaction of them and all they produce seems to just flee from our existence, almost moments after they are past.

In the end, Solomon draws a conclusion that seems to be the absolute antithesis to what is common thought in society today as stated above, “How we see ourselves is the foundation for our values, our choices, our relationships with each other, and our relationship with the rest of nature.”

Solomon concludes that the answer to this question is not found in nor defined by us, but rather it is found in and defined by our Creator, the God of Creation, the God of our Bible, the Judge of all nations, the Father of our Savior, the God of heaven and earth, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the God above all gods, the only true God, the Most High, the Everlasting Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

In reality, it would seem that the simplest answer to the question of what it means to be human is found in Gen. 1-3. Humanity is defined there as a part of God’s creation that is absolutely unique over anything else in existence, including the immaterial, spiritual realm. There, humanity was created alone rather than en masse. the male part of humanity was created first, out of the ground while its female part was created out of a part of the male. It was created with a ruling purpose over creation itself, with God as ruler over them. Humanity had a unique identity with God, being created in God’s own image, able to uniquely reflect the nature of God in procreation, the trinity, moral choice and consciousness (or conscience). When all of that is rejected, removed out of our schools, governments, and public forums, we are left with nothing more than the fleeting empty moments that Solomon describes in the pages of Ecclesiastes.

When society removes God from its schools, governments, and all public forums, and worships itself and humanity over the Creator of humanity, there will come a time that God will remove Himself from them.

Solomon said it best in his conclusion to his investigation into what it means to be human in Ecc. 12:13-14. If you would turn there with me to see in your own Bibles, you will be able to see Solomon’s conclusion of it all, Over Sigmund Freud, Psychology Today, David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., or the BBC. Solomon said...

Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 (NASB)