178 And More

Meaning: “conveying a significance that is not directly expressed . . .”

Having identified clarity and reasonableness as two measures of Meaning Must-Haves, now it is time for three more.

Faith Base: Is the meaningfulness based on an external and enduring Judeo-Christian value system?

I’ve already established that anything less is not a good use of time for me. So, I move right on to the question is the meaningfulness moral and good? God thinks moral is right and good. I think God is right and good. Therefore, morality has a meaningful place in life.

Humanity: Is the meaningfulness I discern compassionate and forgiving, has it any humanity? God is compassionate. God is forgiving. He wants me to be compassionate and forgiving. Christians are meant to be compassionate and forgiving (Ephesians 2:4-5, NKJV). Gotta love those Christians! They are told (by God) to be expert humanitarians.

Virtue: Does this meaningfulness respect choice?

I respect freedom of choice and therefore for something to be meaningful to me it must be freedom-loving and promote freedom of choice. Choice is a big deal in Christianity. Christianity promotes choice absolutely (as opposed to other faith systems that embrace fatalism). So Christianity has respect for choice and choice is therefore meaningful to me. Quite a circle of thought there, huh?

I’m sure you have seen, gentle reader, that in my writing I am embracing my right to choose by selecting certain things and discarding others—that’s what a sort-out is, actually, a process of selecting, keeping and/or discarding.

And from that premise, I argue that it is therefore conspicuous that whatever I embrace as meaningful must endorse choice, too.

I admit it, I like choice. I’m use to making choices. I’m Christian. I’m an American. We choose. A lot. We feel we have an obligation to choose and choose well.

To be continued . . .