No cow has ever pulled its head up from the grass and asked, “What’s the point of it all?” They don’t need an answer. But we do. In fact, when we lack a sense of direction to our lives, we begin to fall apart. We become depressed, unmotivated, joyless. We need a sense of purpose.

This world does not seem to offer us what we need. In this life, what is crooked can’t be straightened. Death seems to have the last word. Trying to fill ourselves with pleasure just leaves us empty. 

C. S. Lewis once wrote, “Most people, if they really learn how to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never keep their promise.” Every day countless people experience an ongoing frustration: it seems impossible to find a lasting, meaningful sense of purpose in this life.

And yet, the Christian gospel teaches us that beyond this life, there is something more. If Jesus really did die and rise from the dead, then we find an answer to our longings. Christ has conquered evil. He has defeated death. He has made a way for every person to know and serve God. Because of the resurrection, there is a real and meaningful purpose in life for all who understand it. 

To live for Christ, the one who has loved us and saved us. To do what he calls us to do and love the world in the name of Jesus—this is the purpose that we were made for.