The Secret to Life, the Universe, and Everything

The secret to happiness, the meaning of life, the holy grail of personal philosophy—whatever you call it, I am guilty of searching for it.

I say "guilty" because I am not proud of this. Searching for the secret to life is such a worn trope of the human condition, and I feel as though I am fading into the mounds of irrelevant philosophical drivel when I use it of myself. Besides that, I know the creator of the universe who is the source of all truth. Do I, a man who claims to know the living God, not have the secret to happiness?

Well, I do. And yet I do not. It all depends on what you mean.

I find this in the Bible:

Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
(Ecclesiastes 12:13)

The preacher in Ecclesiastes tells us that all has been heard pertaining to the meaning of life. The conclusion? First, fear God; second, keep His commandments; because this is the duty of all mankind. This is the secret to man's happiness. This is the meaning of man's life. The holy grail of man's philosophy—we have found it here: in reverent obedience to God.

Yet my analytical mind takes a step back—it is always doing this, backpeddling until it is at one remove from the previous conclusion—and further distills the matter. Aha, I think, yes: this is the general secret to life. That is clear enough. But what is the one thing I can do to succeed in obeying God?

You see, though I know the meaning of life, I still search for the one thing that will make everything simple. I seek the one powerful thought that, if remembered every morning, will set my day on course. I wish for the one concept that, if mastered, will render all other concepts unimportant by its impact and reach. I search for the holy grail of personal philosophy, the killswitch for laziness and selfishness and all manner of sinful behavior. Where is the one thing that will make everything fall into place?

In life, I have learned, there is no one thing. God is one, in that He is unified in His being. But people who elevate one aspect of God's nature over all the others frustrate me, because there is no one thing about God that we can single out for special attention and say, "This quality, this is the God I know." A blue circle cannot be more blue than it is circular. It would be nonsense to say that, while the circle is certainly circular, its blueness is what it is really about.

I have had to realize that the constant questing in my soul is a product of sin. God has given the meaning to life, but man's heart—my heart—wants another way. My heart wants an easy, broad way. I want a simple, elegant answer free of the mess of life and, if I am honest, the cost of discipleship. Growth in holiness is not a just-snap-your-fingers affair. The quest for the one thing is an evasion of God's truth already spoken.