That’s fine. It’s worthy to be repeated.
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This week I’m a bit more focused on other “Meaning of Life” news in my front yard:
Service this morning at University Reformed was full of raw wounds and broken hearts. We’re praying for the survival of the 5 kids still in the hospital and a way for the uni to function somehow.
Telos or no telos, recognized or not, there are many components that make meaning for lives.
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One is the cure and the other is a symptom
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Very cheap shot. You brought up ID and implied that I was ID. Then when I clarified my position, you say I am off topic.
Answer my questions.
Meaning can be distilled and concentrated, concisely. That does not necessarily preclude nor contradict other expressions.
Doesn’t meaning entail some kind of telos, temporal at least? If there is no telos, there are no components. Therefore despair.
That statement you quoted appears to be a genuine contradiction.
This conversation about telos or meaning people can’t help but have, but neither do they really want to have it.
We can’t ever really stop loving!
Clever way to say infer we often love that which is not lovely
Yeah. You know first hand the power we have to damage each other. There is risk in relationships. It’s true.
When you say “dependent” here, do you mean specifically needing something from you? Like affirmation, money, companionship, etc? Or do you mean something more like “emotionally close”? I don’t think they’re the same thing. I just want to make sure I understand what you’re saying.
There is a point, where adults are responsible to make their own decisions about how to use or not use the advice they seek from other people. If they’re asking advice, and you give it, they can take it or leave it.
These are really good points. I don’t think that’s what I’m suggesting, but I sure see how you could think that’s what I mean.
Part of the difference is our framing of the question. You use the term “purpose”, and I use the fuzzier, subjective term “sense of place”. “Purpose” doesn’t work for me. But it does for many people, maybe most. I think it is self-defeating, though. It depends on something from outside of us, and it is evaluative. While I’m a Christian, and I think the purpose that you are talking about, can be found in a relationship with Jesus, that purpose is not entirely clear in the day to day. And I understand that people with no relationship with God see their lives as having meaning, even without purpose from God.
The fuzzier, subjective idea I’m talking about “sense of place in the world,” indicates the way we feel about fitting into our worlds. It rejects evaluative factors that go along with the idea of purpose (Good purpose? How well we accomplish our purpose, etc.) And while we are never free of culture, language, and other formative influences (including relationships), or that these things establish our value somehow, they do affect how we feel about our place in our world. Some of them are things we can control, like working to be free of bad relationships, or improving relationships with people we feel hopeful about, or building new connections and relationships.
I’m not claiming to have this all figured out. It’s how I’m thinking right now.
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No I haven’t… but there are still beautiful things in the world. I liked how Robert Malone would quote this passage about how beauty is what will save us. Beauty in Christ, as there is no greater beauty.
We certainly can’t stop loving something! When it’s the wrong thing(s) I believe it’s called idolatry.
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Hey, that’s heartwarming. 
Roger,
I honestly don’t know where I called you “Intelligent Design.”
I mentioned it up in post 116 in response to Marta:
In this post I was being somewhat ironic, intending to point out that seeking purpose assigned from God as our only way to find meaning in our lives is much like IDers’ view of all living things. Every reference I’ve made to ID in this thread was in reference to the idea I put forth in post 116.
I attempted to explain this in post 153:
I’m sorry you felt I was playing bait and switch. That was not my intent.
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I’m sorry you are going through this. And I don’t mean to minimize the grief it has caused. Neither does it minimize the work of God in the world. That was a super article written from a mature theological perspective. I hope when you’re ready you can have a look at it. Craig Keener also expresses a great point of view on it. Highly recommended!
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But at least some of us suspect it’s providential.
Who would do that!? 
His review of the history of revivals is enlightening, including artificial ones (I saw the attempts in the 50s and 60s, and I guess you still see it in some churches, denominations and on TV). From the CT article though,
In previous revivals, there has always been fruit that has blessed both the church and society. For instance, even secular historians acknowledge that the Second Great Awakening was pivotal to bringing about the end of slavery in our country.
…visiting scholar Hong Leow… prayed and fasted
I am not who I should be.
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His article is in The Roys Report (maybe originally?).
And another about Asbury at the Sam Storms “Enjoying God” site,
TWO PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE ASBURY AWAKENING
(And in case this be deemed off-topic, Enjoying God is all about meaning.)
It doesn’t to me, as I’ve explained a few times in this thread. You’re welcome to disagree.
Your
…
I have no words fit for this forum to characterize the insensitivity. Jesus wept, in tears and rage, knowing what he was going to do in the next few minutes.
Jesus despaired before ultimate suffering that none of us can comprehend, knowing how it would come out in the end.
Jesus understands. He doesn’t minimize.
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Who would do that.
I never saw rage before. I still don’t.
For the joy set before him he endured the cross. He didn’t minimize the outpouring of the Spirit or how his sacrifice was required to initiate the New Covenant to establish his Church and to guard his bride in a way that Adam failed to guard his.