GUEST POST: Chris J. on meaning

This post is from a friend of mine, Chris J. This shows, just like Danny S. post, how awesome it is to see the opinions of others. I encourage you to read on!

I work in a place where talking during the day (if you can) really makes the difference between time going by relatively quickly and going by slower than a young Lego enthusiast being put in front of a wall of Legos being told to choose one. I know from experience on that one, it could take hours to make a decision that could only take 5 seconds. Yes, at work we teeter on the brink of breezing through and gnashing our teeth on any given day.
So, that being said, us diligent workers at the manufacturing plant of BMW tend to want to talk, shoot the breeze, get in each others business.....and philosophize to our hearts content. This is a very good training ground for people, such as myself, who like to play the field with such topics such as religion, science, politics (but who really cares about politics eh?), social issues, what we would've done with our lives other than this, and conspiracy theories. And that's just topics for the first quarter of some days that just so happen to go by at a snails pace.
Religion and the Bible tend to be a hot topic among several people. It has given me some very challenging topics to digest. Being confronted with people that span the wide range of opinions ranging from the literal “you're going to hell for not believing what I believe” to “Jesus could have been an alien” has really caused me to think, which is not a bad thing,  unless you really think Jesus was and alien, the buck stops there.
Several people really search. We really care what we think, and in turn, we really care what others think. It dawned on me one day as I saw a few associates having a heated discussion on a Bible topic. Something very profound. Earth shattering if you will. A ground breaking peace of information came to me. And what's even more intriguing is that my wife confirmed it by bringing up this same bit of “inspiration” days later. Ahhhh, synchronicity. Here it is:
Meaningless, it's all meaningless.
There it is. Do with it what you may. I's meaningless to get into it with people about what they believe about anything....unless they care to know. ESPECIALLY religion. Everything is meaningless. That's what we are told in the book Ecclesiastes in the Bible. That book popped in my head, and like I said, my wife later mentioned it in talking about this taxing subject. Unbeknownst to me, she had been thinking the same thing, and reading Ecclesiastes just as I was.
You see, we all search for meaning. Hell, I search for meaning in what song comes on the frickin radio when I'm going through something. How pitiful is that? We search for meaning in our jobs, in relationships, in marriage, in food and drink, recreational pleasure...you name it. The writer of this book stress's the awesome truth that we can all grasp without going through any of that. I paraphrase:
“Forget about it buddy, everything in this crummy world is meaningless, so don't even try finding any meaning. You'll fall short every time.”
So than what's the point? What do I do for meaning? Should I care what other's think? Believe? How they view life and God?
Here's what I've come to learn through this: I bring the meaning to this meaninglessness. We are it. We are the meaning. Us + God = meaning. It's not up to me to convince someone, other than myself, what to believe or how to view God and life. We are all on our own journeys of discovery....destiny. People who are open, who want to know, are going to listen to me and want to learn what I know. And vice versa. Getting into debates with others is meaningless – a chasing after the wind.
The same writer who wrote Ecclesiastes said “a man can do nothing better than to eat and drink an find satisfaction in his work.” And also, “I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.” Translation: Meaning comes from working, enjoying the fruits of that labor and enjoying as much of this life as you can without hopes of finding meaning in it.
Another point I came across. We base our society off the ten commandments. The first one is to have but one God – the one true God of Love and Life. The other nine commandments were all how best to treat other people. Funny. Jesus said something like that didn't he? The one thing he left us with is to love God with everything we have, and to love others like ourself. In other words, everything else is meaningless.
I'm realizing more and more that my path is my path. I am extremely open to let people know what I have discovered and what I may be questioning, or what I may have figured out and settled on. I try to find so much meaning in that. I try to find so much meaning in my work, in what I do for a living. I try to find so much meaning in who I am, what I eat, what I drink, the clothes I wear and the car I drive. It's all pointless, it's all going away one day. Even my opinions.
The meaning comes from inside of me. This meaning I bring to my daily life that stems from my daily walk with the Divine. Most people call Him/Her God. There is meaning in how I treat people and conduct my affairs in relationships. What I “believe” about all this other stuff is for me. If you want to know, the hungry will be seeking and ask for it. And the hungry will find it. Otherwise, it's mine. The meaning is mine.