By Chris WittsThursday 28 Dec 2023Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
Subscribe to Morning Devotions podcast
Transcript:
There have been a number of young singers who have burst onto the international music scene, who have made quite an impact, and I’m thinking of Lewis Capaldi, the Scottish singer songwriter. He’s been blessed with a beautiful singing voice. The younger generation will know who he is, if you don’t know. He released his first single, Bruises, in March 2017, and then the following year, he gained worldwide attention with ‘Someone you Loved’.
He was nominated for a Grammy Award, and it was the biggest selling UK single of 2019. Quite a nice, haunting melody. And then another of his big releases was ‘Pointless’ in 2022 – a lovely ballad. A man singing about his partner and their care for one another. “I bring her coffee in the morning. She takes the sadness out of me. She takes me as I am.”
There are a few of the lines. It’s a song about a couple who seem to know and love and support each other. And in the chorus, Lewis Capaldi sings, ‘Everything is pointless without you’. Now I’m thinking of that phrase today, everything is pointless without you. I’m sure many of us feel that way about a special person in our life, perhaps a romantic partner or your child or your best friend or a parent. Usually there’s someone we’ve known who helps make life complete, and without them, the rest seems pointless.
Who are we relying upon?
When we choose to love those who matter most to us. When we choose to show compassion towards others, their wellbeing becomes important. We choose to care, life’s got a purpose, and so do you have a purpose in your life. What makes you happy to get up out of bed in the morning? One of the great quotes I think that can change the way we live is from the latest German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who said ‘he who has a why to live can bear almost any how‘. I think it’s a great statement. We can create our own meaning in our life. Psychologists say that humans are the meaning makers. Whether we realise it or not, we need to answer the question. What is the purpose for my life?
Often we invest some purpose just to settle that nagging question. But is that the best way to unravel the question. What is the point of my life? What is it that brings significance and value and purpose?
The popular writer and Oxford academic and the Christian leader CS. Lewis made people sit up and take notice when he said,
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
In other words, Lewis was saying, and he was a brilliant man, that knowing Jesus gave him clarity and purpose. Everything was pointless without Jesus. I read the Old Testament and come across Solomon, the richest man on earth and the wisest man, too, and he looked back on his long life. And he wrote, “There’s nothing better for a person that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment for his toil. This also, as I saw, is from the hand of God for apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment.” That’s from Ecclesiastes 2.
He was doing a review of his life, and he begins with wisdom and knowledge, and he concludes as an older man that these lead to more questions and more frustrations because not everything has an answer, and he tries all kinds of pleasure but saw that these left him empty and longing for more. So he throws himself into work and once again sees the emptiness and working hard only to leave all that he’s accomplished to someone who comes after him, someone who might be less qualified, less thankful. In the end, he worked out that despite great wealth, he couldn’t find a reason for life except through God, his creator.
And when we begin to trace all things back to God, we will see that our satisfaction must be found in him alone. So that no matter what happens to our stuff, our work, our health or all that we experience, we can find fulfilment and joy because we have God. And in him we have everything that makes life worth living. And Solomon’s final words were, ‘Fear God and obey his command, for this is everyone’s duty.’ God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, we want to see the real point and the value of life. We have so many opportunities to experience the ups and the downs. But without you as our creator and guide, life can become meaningless. Show me the good values of being a Christian, today, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.