Message Date: February 2, 2025

Longing for Eden, Pt 4: Longing for Meaning

Victory Life Church — Sunday, January 26, 2025

We live in an era that is being described as suffering from a “crisis of meaning.”

To be human is to crave a sense of meaning—that our lives mean something. We long for life to be in a state of wholeness and peace. We long for Eden, the state where life is in God’s presence, and there is a clear purpose to our work and meaning in our relationships.

The Eden Ideal: to be in an interdependent relationship with God and each other, tasked with the purpose of spreading God’s goodness in caring for and cultivating the garden of Eden into all creation.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Working as God’s Image

How do we glorify him? In part, we be who he’s called us to be, doing what he called us to do.

Genesis 1:26-28 (ESV) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Humans made in God’s image means “representation” and “rule” in partnership

How do we glorify God? We “work” as an extension of being made in the image of God. According to Genesis 1:26-28 in the creation of mankind, the image of God is expressed through “representation” and “rule,” and this is exercised through partnership.

To rule is to work. Work is intrinsic to what it means to be human.

The Eden Ideal, life in paradise in the presence of God and at peace with each other, is not a hedonistic pleasure-fest. Genesis 1 describes God as the Creator “working”. He is the Master Workman. Humans are made in his image; therefore, “working” is intrinsic to our creation.

“Life without work would not be worthy of human beings.”

We will be addressing the idolatry of work in the next series, but here, we need to see the proper place for work within our lives and how we can find purpose and meaning in our work.

Within the context of Genesis 1:26-28, the image of God gets expressed in our work when tied together within this framework:

Personal Character — Personal Responsibility — Partnership Together

[Representation] — [Rule] — [Partnership: God/Others]

Because meaning in our lives is anchored in our identity (we are God’s image, and because of Jesus, we are redeemed in God’s family as sons and daughters), finding meaning in our work requires alignment with why he made humans in the first place. We were made to reveal God’s character (his goodness and love), and so our work is a way to express his character into the world. It’s not the only way, but it is important to see them connected. Our character matters in our work, and it cannot be separated from our work.

Responsibility is also a critical dimension for us to discover meaning in our lives. God’s work in Genesis 1 was to take the “formless and void,” the “tohu va vohu”, which could be interpreted as “chaos,” and turn it into “good” (“tov”), into order and beauty. In Genesis 1:26-28, God calls humans to imitate Him in that same work; as his “likeness” (representatives), we are to “rule” (work) the world in the same way. To “subdue” the earth (Genesis 1:28) means to assert our will over something, harnessing its potential for a larger purpose. Literally, “subduing” the earth refers to agriculture, to yield the earth’s full potential. We are given the responsibility by God Himself, inherit in his image, to go into the chaos of the world and transform it into order, beauty, and goodness. Meaning is not something that can be passively received or discovered without effort, but often comes through taking on personal responsibility. There is a season in childhood when you are unable to bear responsibilities, and there is going too far as an adult and taking responsibility for too much in life. However, in balance, stop abnegating responsibility if you are an adult. Take responsibility for your life, for your family, and for your community. You are not a victim. We have a responsibility intrinsic within our creation to go into the chaotic world and bring order and beauty.

“What matters…is not the meaning of life in general, but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.” ~ Victor Frankl

I spoke more about partnership last week, but finding meaning in our work matters in how we partner with others and how we contribute to the lives of others. The responsibility of transforming chaos into order is something we are called to do together. We were not meant to live or even work alone.

“No one person can fulfill God’s purposes alone—we need each other. Our identity is defined in community. The task of dominion belongs to the entire species.” ~ Carmen Joy Imes

Meaning in our work is not just about how we accomplish the work together, but also how we impact others. If we truly want to find meaning in what we do, it is tied to how we impact others. How are we making other people’s lives better through what we do?

Mr. Holland’s Opus:

A movie that I love is “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” Made in 1995, starring Richard Dreyfuss, it tells the story of Glenn Holland, a successful and talented musician and composer, who takes a position as a music teacher at a high school to be closer to his wife and work on his symphony. The movie covers his 30-year career as a teacher, where in his first year and questions if this is really what he wants to do. He’s confronted by the school principal who gives him this advice:

“A Teacher has two jobs: the first is to fill young minds with knowledge. But more important is to give those minds a compass so that that knowledge does not go to waste.”

He takes this advice seriously and invests in his students with unique passion and techniques. In the movie, he faces numerous struggles, disappointments, and temptations to veer off course, all the while working on his own symphony. His son being deaf came as an immense disappointment, and the movie does well in showing the emotional ups and downs of struggling through these challenges and disappointments, eventually overcoming them and being an example of commitment, purpose, and faithfulness. And yet, after a 30-year career, the school cuts the funding for the music program, and Mr. Holland is forced into early retirement. In a scene where he is struggling to face the reality of this devastating situation, he laments to his friend:

“I got dragged into this gig kicking and screaming, and now it’s the only thing I want to do… You work your whole life because you think that what you do makes a difference; you think it matters to people. Then you wake up one morning and find out that you are…expendable.”

Has anybody else felt this way at times?

As he is leaving the school with his belongings for the last time, he hears a commotion in the auditorium. When he enters, to his surprise, the room is filled with hundreds of his current and former students whom he has impacted through his 30 years of teaching. In a speech delivered by the governor of their state, who turns out to be a former struggling clarinet player that he personally encouraged and gave extra time to in his first year of teaching 30 years earlier, she says:

“Mr. Holland had a profound influence on my life, on a lot of lives I know. And yet, I get the feeling that he considers a great part of his own life misspent. Rumor had it that he was always working on this symphony of his, and this was going to make him famous, rich. Probably both. But Mr. Holland isn’t rich, and he isn’t famous, At least not outside of our little town. So it might be easy to think himself a failure. And he would be wrong. Because I think he’s achieved a success far beyond riches and fame. Look around you. There is not a life in this room that you have not touched. And each one of us is a better person because of you. We are your symphony, Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and notes of your opus. And we are the music of your life.”

The movie concludes with his students from all 30 years of his teaching performing his symphony together. If you don’t cry during this scene, you either fell asleep and didn’t follow the plot, or you’re too young to understand that kind of sacrifice, or you are heartless. The movie draws out the tension so many of us feel, how do find meaning and purpose in what we do? Does our life really matter and are we making a difference? Is the only way to know we made a difference is if we are famous or rich from what we do? Maybe. But never underestimate living to impact people. It’s the kind of life that impacts eternity.

Conclusion

1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV) Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Humans were made to go into the chaotic world and bring order and beauty and goodness. We do this in service of others. This is how we

“Look around you. How are things in your corner of the world? Are you reflecting the Creator’s desire to bring order that promotes the flourishing of creation? Most of the time our fulfillment of that task is not flashy—washing the dishes and folding the laundry do not win awards and are not Instagram-worthy, but when we are diligent to bring order to our corner of the world, those around us have space in which to flourish.” ~ Carmen Joy Imes