Embracing the Absurd: Finding Meaning Through Unconditional Gratitude
“Give thanks for everything. This is God’s will for you.”
—1 Thessalonians 5:18
“My collar is coffee-stained from pursuing time, my mind is city-stained from a long day of pursuing purpose. Not only has London lost its glamour, so has everything mankind has built. Yes, Dr. Johnson, so what if I am tired of life?”
—Journal entry, 2016
I was struggling with darkness—busy to the point of exhaustion. Why? It was a distraction from the feeling of nothing inside.
Through this experience, I’ve learned something profound:
It’s through gratitude that we feel the value of something. Seeing the value makes it all feel more… real.
- What’s the point of striving for something if we cannot appreciate it?
- What’s the point of having anything if we cannot feel gratitude?
- What’s the point of living if we cannot feel grateful?
Here is my perspective on how gratitude can fill the gap of meaning.
A Brief History of Meaning
“Everything is meaningless!”
—Ecclesiastes 1:2
Whether during quiet contemplation on vacation or in the midst of a stressful day, it’s not uncommon to ask: “Just what is the point of it all?”
Over thousands of years, an array of thinkers and philosophers have pitched their viewpoints on life’s meaning.
I believe there’s value in each perspective.
The Bible provides, in my opinion, an open buffet—a kaleidoscope of insights.
- Stoicism: Seeking wisdom and virtue as the greatest goals.
- Hedonism: Emphasizing having a good time now.
- Confucianism: Teaching that the highest ideal is to serve your community through intrinsic values.
- Christianity (Pre-19th Century): God gave the meaning.
Then came Nihilism, famously announcing the death of meaning and of God.
“God remains dead. And we have killed him.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Absurdism agreed that life has no inherent meaning. Isn’t everything pretty absurd when you think about it? The fact that you are… you… in space and time, reading this blog. And here I am, attempting to connect the dots of my own experience, positive psychology, the meaning of life, and the Bible. If that’s not absurd, I don’t know what is.
According to Absurdism, the absurdity lies in human nature’s craving for meaning in a meaningless existence. The only thing left is to be an absolute rebel and live a full life anyway—with guts.
A distinction is often made between meaning of life and meaning in life:
- Meaning in life: What you, as an individual, deem meaningful.
- Meaning of life: A broader, perhaps universal meaning given to all humans, possibly from a supernatural or higher source.
For me, almost everything I’ve encountered fits the “meaning in life” category, though my heart often merges these two meanings.
This could be seen as Subjectivism—meaning is different for each person—or perhaps Existentialism, where life has no meaning until you give it one through your own will and actions.
What a headache! But I admit, it fascinates me.
In philosophical circles, anything related to the Bible is often placed under Theism, where God is the meaning of life—the center of it all. True, but I believe there’s more to it.
Questioning Blind Faith
By reading the Bible, you can learn how many nations that dogmatically lived a certain meaning didn’t benefit humanity one bit.
- The Assyrians worshiped the god Ashur, a violent, power-hungry figure, and unsurprisingly, they reflected this. They ruled with brutality, and everyone hated them.
- The Canaanites worshiped many gods, going to the extreme of burning their children alive as sacrifices. Even a Nihilist would struggle to justify that.
The Bible does not support the idea of worshiping a god blindly. Instead, it presents God alongside solid values that align with an inherent sense of goodness.
- The Bible discourages blind faith, blind meaning, and the harmful practices they can bring.
- And isn’t the biggest act of faith the meaning we attribute to life?
So, while the Bible might put serving God as the highest meaning, examining what meaning this gives to humanity reveals other powerful insights.
An Existential Crisis
“Strawberry fields. Nothing is real.”
—The Beatles, “Strawberry Fields Forever”
Visualization is a powerful tool. We can plan ahead, determine the best outcomes, and work toward them. Projecting into the future keeps many of us busy.
Over ten years ago, I visualized almost every eventuality possible, mostly because I was resisting my current reality. What if I moved here? What if I saved this amount of money? What if I bought this car?
I did this for months on end.
Then it came—a breaking point. It was like something snapped; the lights and music went out. My mental merry-go-round stopped turning. It hit me one day that none of it really matters.
I got there without any help—just me and the Bible.
Either my Christian faith community and I were right, and God is going to fix everything at some point, or He doesn’t care or exist, and the universe will end in 200 billion years anyway. Who am I in all of it?
As a result, all my present actions felt pointless. I became a walking shadow.
That was an existential crisis. It seems to happen to a lot of people.
Interestingly, it lessened my anxiety. Today, there’s a type of therapy called Cosmic Insignificance Therapy, which forces you to confront your ultimate limitations, reducing your problems to the puniness of you.
My Christian faith and worldview? Swinging around, trying to find a place to land. I knew the Bible and grew up with its teachings. I still believed in God, but I felt that life was pointless.
The Mirror of Ecclesiastes
And there I was—a professed Christian struggling with existential angst—finding a book in the Bible, of all places, written by someone experiencing something similar.
I found great solace in the book of Ecclesiastes, written by a wise and rich man, believed to be Solomon. He probably had one of the greatest lives in history. In a time of relative peace and huge prosperity, he was an artist, builder, author, influencer, royal, and a ladies’ man.
He had everything a person could want in staggering quantities—money, fame, women, power, wisdom, heritage, and the resources to pursue any creative endeavor. Yet, he wrote about his frustration and sorrow that nothing gave him meaning. Nothing lit him up anymore.
“Everything is meaningless.”
—Ecclesiastes 1:2
If you follow the biblical account, Solomon eventually went against his own values and wisdom, negatively impacting his well-being. Some might argue that this led him to a sense of meaninglessness, strikingly similar to Nihilism.
But here’s the crux: If you believe God wanted Ecclesiastes in His book, perhaps He sees it as a truth He wants you to explore—the utter emptiness of life.
Why on earth would God want you to feel this?
Maybe it’s because many things in life are meaningless. Perhaps He is offering everyone struggling with an existential crisis a path to work through it.
The Bible does not shield us from the harsh realities of life. Instead, it gazes into them.
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
—Carl Jung
God, the source of being, invites you to use profound struggles to expand and deepen your sense of existence.
Does being need meaning?
Maybe God is inviting you to ask difficult questions in your life:
- What do all my plans amount to?
- Why am I doing all this?
- What really matters to me?
At that time, I concluded: The meaning of life is to breathe meaning into life.
I began living more openly and with more grit. I dropped much of the nonsense I was chasing and started a new journey within my faith.
Life Rafts in the Sea of Meaninglessness
So, where does that leave us?
Ecclesiastes became my favorite book because it resonated, especially the last sentences:
“Fear God and obey his commandments, for this is what it means to be human.”
—Ecclesiastes 12:13 (ISV)
I once showed this to someone who scoffed at the word “fear.” Before I could address it, he dismissed it. So, let’s address it now.
The Hebrew word יָרֵא (yare’) has broad nuances. It can mean anxious fear, but it can also signify awe, respect, veneration, astonishment—it takes your breath away. Hebrew doesn’t use specific words for each of these ideas but one: יָרֵא.
Whenever I feel יָרֵא, I forget about meaning.
This verse is talking about a life stance. There’s no why to this stance.
- Why feel awe toward God?
- Why obey Him?
Just… because. God is infinite.
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
—Psalm 90:2 (NRSV)
It’s like when infinite mass exists in one area of space—it creates a black hole. A black hole breaks down physics. The underpinning of reality doesn’t matter much anymore. Our conceptual understanding doesn’t apply here.
God is infinite. He doesn’t have to mean anything. To say God has to mean something is to assign Him a role—that’s not our job.
Being before meaning.
“Respect and obey God! This is what life is all about.”
—Ecclesiastes 12:13 (CEV)
And there Ecclesiastes ends.
Life is a gift. Life is also a vehicle—a tool.
There’s no meaning to a tool unless it’s used. A vehicle has no direction just by being there.
Nobody can respect and obey God for you.
So, the meaning of life might be up to you after all.
From Profound Respect to Unconditional Gratitude
“By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness.”
—Psalm 65:5a (ESV)
Awe and respect for the enormity of life and its source—now there’s a pillar holding up a great deal of good.
Awe and gratitude are nearly the same on many levels.
They provide life’s music.
With both, we need to open our awareness, lean in, and intentionally feel the goodness. Both arise from stillness, contemplation, and meditation on the big and the small. Both give us a sense of intrinsic value.
- Awe is feeling, Wow, that’s cool.
- Gratitude is feeling, Wow, thank you.
- Awe and respect leave us feeling inspired and curious.
- Appreciation leaves us feeling immersed and connected.
- Awe makes us feel that life is full of goodness.
- Gratitude makes us feel the goodness of life.
Awe and gratitude are like brothers, best friends. You’ll likely see them together. Where you find one, you’ll find the other.
The Punchline: Gratitude as the Meaning of It All
Unpacking 1 Thessalonians 5:18 is like splitting an atom.
“Give thanks for everything!” That radical idea—to actively look for things that fill you with gratitude.
And now, the punchline:
“This is God’s will for you.”
Some translations render it as, “This is what God wants for you in your life.”
The Greek word for “will” is θέλημα (thelēma), meaning an act of will, wishes, or desires—a choice made to bring something about.
The idea that God has a will and that it might be objective is huge. Trying this in your life takes refined and fearless faith.
If you’re coming from a meaningless void, this will require deep wrestling.
This journey might be dark.
But if God can speak the universe out of nothing, He can also speak to you from the nothingness (Nihilism).
Acknowledge existential questions—don’t fear them. Meaninglessness can offer a blank slate to rebuild who you want to be. It’s not just a dark challenge but an opportunity for profound freedom.
Make a choice to live well just because. This is you choosing to rebel against the meaningless absurdity of it all.
Wrestle with what it might mean to align yourself with God’s will. Don’t accept it out of blind faith—a philosophical cop-out.
Keep asking the hard questions. Keep exploring.
If God created you to think for yourself, then you have a choice. Embrace that choice fully! Give yourself permission to create your own meaning. Take full responsibility for your inner experience.
Test God’s will for you. Explore 1 Thessalonians 5:18 in your life. Test gratitude. Choose to live with a lens of enrichment. Appreciate existence for what it is. Be in awe of life in all its absurdity.
Integrate your refined faith in God’s will as a totally authentic choice.
Hone gratitude until it becomes who you are. Choose unconditional gratitude not because it means something, but because it makes life a meaningful experience.
It’s God telling you what the meaning of life is.
Think about that—an objective sign in the midst of chaos.
He wants you to value in your heart what is all around you.
It means mindfully savoring this experience with gratitude.
Embracing Life’s Tapestry: From Grayness to Gratitude
Life can often look gray—a hamster wheel.
When you find yourself bored, seek something you like: the sunset, a stranger’s smile, the taste of coffee, a song you love coming on the radio.
Life isn’t something you have to do.
Life is something you get to do.
When life takes an ugly turn, God wants you to look hard for something in it. It could be anything.
- When a loved one is dying in the hospital: I am grateful they have existed. I am grateful for the impact they’ve had on me. I’m grateful for my tears because that means this person is worth crying for.
The ultimate meaning of your existence is unfathomable.
But if God is your designer, He knows.
If it’s God’s will for you to be in amazement and gratitude for everything in your life, then this is the meaning of your existence!
You’ll notice that whatever you feel grateful for bursts meaning into your life—a meaning beyond words.
How does that sound?
Being in awe and appreciation for God’s greatness and His creation—that’s the meaning of life. That’s what God wants you to do!
All I need to do is cultivate gratitude. No, wait—unconditional gratitude. Give thanks for everything.
An Existential Leap of Faith
All I know is this: Gratitude is like a thread tying our minds to the world.
The Good News Translation puts it beautifully:
“Be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus.”
—1 Thessalonians 5:18 (GNT)
In this wild dance of life’s absurdities, let the music of gratitude move you. Every moment, every twist and turn, can be a step toward a life rich with meaning.
It’s about finding that pulse in the chaos, that rhythm in the randomness, and turning it all into a dance worth remembering.
Embrace unconditional gratitude. Let it transform your experience from existential grayness to vibrant meaning.
