You are more!

Is our existence in the world a haphazard event? Are our lives and the world we live in a meaningless, absurd accident? One of the most famous proponents of a world without meaning was Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre wrote, ““One always dies too soon - or too late. And yet one's whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are - your life, and nothing else.” Albert Camus, a supporter of Atheistic Existentialism, wrote, “I don’t know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I cannot know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it.” How different the perspective of the Psalmist:

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, 
the world, and all who live in it. – Psalm 24:1

For the Psalmist there is a transcendent reality that brings meaning to life.  As one discovers life is a gift to be opened we realize that our lives are more than what we make of them. Wrapped up in ourselves, our lives are small, insignificant presences. Wrapped up in the arms of a transcendent God, our lives become large, impressive presences because our lives are more. – Ron Friesen

For an essay on atheistic existentialism by Sartre see: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm