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Desperate to Understand
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Three Words
“I’m planning to end my life. It will happen in a few days—at the end of the Christmas holidays. Only you will know that it wasn’t an accident. Frankly, I’m looking forward to dying. I have no reason to continue living.”
I saw her expression. This was no “wolf cry” for attention. It was a last-ditch effort to see if there was some purpose for living that she had missed in her nearly 50 years of walking this planet.
Since I had never met this woman, I was curious. “What caused you to come talk with me?”
She explained that over the past year, her son and his wife had been attending our church. During that time they had experienced a radical life change. Though she held little hope for finding meaning from religion, she realized there was nothing to lose in meeting with me.
What a contrast of emotions I experienced as I listened to her story. On the one hand, I hurt for her in her deep sense of hopelessness. Yet on the other hand, I could hardly contain my eagerness to introduce her to three words that I was confident would end her lifelong search.
After hearing the final details of her disappointing life and her many dead-end searches for something that could make her life meaningful, I surprised her with what I said. “Judy, I have to commend you. You are smarter than most of us. You have discovered something that many never realize. You’ve realized that there is nothing in this world that can give your life meaning. You have come, in a sense, to the end of life’s internet, while the rest of us are surfing away with the hope of finding what you know isn’t there. You know that when hope is gone, the desire to live is gone too.”
As you would assume, I needed to say more than simply commending her insight about life’s hopelessness. I vividly remember the thrill I experienced when I introduced her to three words that unlock the meaning to life. I couldn’t help but anticipate her eyes brightening as I explained these words.
The reason for my anticipation was based on untold numbers of weekly conversations like this with depressed students, religious and irreligious people, moral and immoral businessmen, professional athletes, discouraged divorcees . . . the list could go on and on. Repeatedly, I hear the same response—that these three words, when their meanings are unpacked, explain a lifelong search for satisfaction. The three words are “glory,” “grace,” and “truth.”
I introduced the first of these words to Judy. “Glory” would best be understood in the context of a story.
Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Randy Pope's book, The Answer.
If you would like to order a copy of The Answer, you can do so by following this link. |
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