Just eating and sleeping is not God’s original intention for man. According to a Chinese saying, “man is the spirit of all creatures.” This is not wrong. In God’s creation man was originally noble, extraordinary, and special. Now, however, everyone groans about the meaninglessness of human life. Originally, man was full of purpose, but since he lost his original position and function, he has also lost his purpose.
Man was made by God for God; this gave great meaning to man in the beginning. However, man has become alienated from God. He does not know God, does not have God, and does not believe in God. Without God, man is left with a sense of vanity and meaninglessness related to his human life. Man is like a light bulb that cannot shine. The function of a light bulb is to be placed in a lamp so that it can shine and fulfill its function of illumination. If a light bulb is placed in anything other than a lamp, it will be useless, and its inability to shine will make its existence superfluous. This is man’s condition without God.
Man is made for God. If he is not for God, his life is meaningless. If a man puts on beautiful clothing, he will eventually feel meaningless. If a man has a good family, he will eventually feel meaningless. Even a high position will not take away a sense of meaninglessness because a high position is not the reason for man’s existence. Only when a man touches God does he have a sense of meaning, joy, strength, and power. Man is a “single-purpose” item. He was made solely for God. Hence, when a man has God, he does not have a sense of vanity; instead, he has satisfaction, joy, and peace.
All the problems of human life are due to not having God. Whatever man relies on will always be a source of sorrow and vanity (Eccl. 1:2-3). There was a mother who gave birth to a child, and she named him Little Treasure. When he was young, the mother would lovingly call him “Little Treasure! Little Treasure!” As he grew, Little Treasure began to cause her to be full of sorrow and tears. When she was asked about the reason for her tears, she said, “Little Treasure is growing up and is no longer obedient.” When I heard this, I laughed inwardly, saying, “Little Treasure has become Annoying Treasure.”
Another sister also treasured her son, but when her precious son was married, he no longer seemed to care as much for his mother. The mother wept every day. When we visited her, she said, “My dear son no longer loves me; he is always with his wife.” I told her, “Your strong love for your son is the source of your pain.” When the child of another mother suddenly died, the mother was broken-hearted and wept over the coffin, crying, “I wish that I could go with you, my dear child; you have ruined me!” She experienced such great pain because she loved her child apart from God and because her love was excessive.
There was a highly educated sister who taught in the university and accumulated much wealth. She did not spend much money on food and clothing, but she exerted every effort to make money. However, she did not know where to put her money. She felt that it was unsafe to entrust her money to friends or to deposit it in Chinese banks. Eventually, she put her money in a foreign bank in Shanghai. One day, however, this bank suddenly closed. When the sister heard the news, she almost became insane with grief. Money truly destroyed her.
We should be cautious. Wives must be cautious, and husbands must be cautious. Everything that we depend on can be a source of vanity. If a wife depends on her husband, he will bring her vanity. If a husband depends on his wife, she will bring him vanity. Only when we depend on God will we have satisfaction, joy, and peace.
Before World War II there was a rich man in Shanghai who had a nice house and a nice car. He also had a doorkeeper. The rich man was under stress every day, and he could not eat or sleep well. When he asked his wife about the reason for his stress, she could not give him a reason. Eventually, he said, “The only one who eats and sleeps well is my doorkeeper, because he has no money. Since he has no money, nothing matters to him.” The wife did not believe her husband, so he said, “If you do not believe me, I will make him lose all his sleep tonight.” Then the rich man gave five hundred dollars to the doorkeeper. Throughout the day the doorkeeper considered how to spend the five hundred dollars, but he could not decide what to do with the money. When he could not decide, he wrapped up the money, put it under his pillow, and tried to go to sleep. However, he would repeatedly feel the money and then look at it. Eventually, he did not sleep well the whole night. When the rich man heard about his lack of sleep, he told his wife, “Money also has made me unable to eat or sleep well.”
This does not mean that money is useless; rather, the problem is that we set our heart on money. We suffer because we love money instead of God. We need to see that money is vain and that a heart set on vanity can only be vain. This is true of everything, not just money. As long as we stay away from God and set our heart on anything that is vain, we will be empty and miserable. If we love God, we will have God, but many do not have God because they do not love Him. This is the reason for their vanity and misery.
As long as we do not want God and do not have God, we will have a sense of vanity related to our family. Similarly, organizations, societies, and countries are vain. Without God, families, organizations, societies, countries, and even the whole world will be a source of vanity and misery. If there is no God, there can only be vanity and misery. Since man was made for God, man can be satisfied, joyous, and peaceful only when he has God.