The Pursuits of Men

In life the mortal man concerns himself with the pursuit of three things: Others dream of doing great things and gaining popularity and fame. Some seek riches so they can do anything they please in the world and have anything they desire. And the rest seek the edification or satisfaction of their bodies, to drown in pleasure and all sorts of enjoyments. Some live for all three.

Generations come and go. The young men grow old and die, babies are born to take their place. And so the cycle continues, it is endless, for the old pass on to the young the same traditions and ways of life, humanity only changes as time changes.

I see countless people walking in the streets, rushing after this and then rushing after that. I have looked at life a couple of times, in all its splendor and all its sadness, trying to determine what the meaning of man’s endless toil is, what it is that he achieves at the end of the day. From my observations I have come to believe that mortal men live to chase dreams that they never really catch, humanity believes it achieves its dreams but it does not. Look at the different societies and see what it is they say they have accomplished since time. Then look at those among them that still see sufferation and pain. It is as the good book says, the poor [in wealth and spirit] will always be among us. If all humanity’s hard work will never completely remove sickness and the poor it is as the teacher in Ecclesiastes said, “all life is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

It is all made clear when one asks the question “What do we live for?” In other words, what do I gain by living for 30 or 50 or 90 years? So let’s now look at the three things men feel worthy to live and die for in hope that they will tell us what we gain by our different pursuits in life.

Let’s say I choose to live my life for the pursuit of wealth, to be rich and have all I desire and do whatever I please. What happens then when I get it all? It is a given millionaires live what can be said to be some of the best lives on earth. Still millionaires die too, all their money can never get them that which makes living possible, life itself. So it follows that the pursuit of wealth is flawed. For wealth is not the end result, it does not solve all man’s problems. So through the pursuit of wealth you can not answer man’s question “What is the meaning of life?”

I could therefore say I will live my life for fame, that is the acknowledgment and respect of men for my great deeds. It is a nice thing to have the good opinion of your peers and it is even much greater to have their admiration. But fame itself is a double edged sword. It sucks the life out of the person who has it. He is forced to live a lie, pretend to be someone he is not just to meet the expectations of men. So he does things extraordinary to his nature that exhaust his soul and dries up his bones just to maintain the admiration and adoration of his peers. Should I then take this road that clearly shows it will lead me to destruction? I think not.

Having crossed out riches and fame, the only thing out of the three that is left to live for then is the edification of the body, allowing the flesh to have all the pleasures it desires: fun and women. Fun exploits bring gladness to the soul and have a large part in the activities of every man. But the pursuit of fun never ends, there always is a time when a particular fun ends and you must find some other activity to captivate your mind.

If fun fails, what then of edifying the body with women? It has come to my notice that there are three types of women in this world: 1)There are those who simply want me for my money. Should I then hand myself over to women to whom my value to them is no more than a loaf of bread or a new shoe or time at the saloon? I think not. 2)Then there are those who only want me to shag them blind whenever they feel like it. Is the worth of my life then nothing more than the equivalent of a sex toy? Am I to spend the days of my life as a living dildo? Certainly not! 3)Then there are the women who want me to marry them and start a family with them. Nothing wrong with that. But even the word of God admits “those who marry will face many troubles in this life”. Should I then gladly hand my life over to certain trouble for the rest of my days? I think not.

It follows therefore that the pursuit of the edification of the flesh through fun and women is not what life is all about either. Pleasure is not the end result, for the pursuit of fun never ends and women are not completely worth giving my life to.

It all goes to show that nothing in life ever entirely satisfies the mortal man and there in this fact lies the answer to the question of mine “What is the meaning of life?” Having observed all these things, it occurs to me that the only reason why the toil and pursuits of man are endless but still he finds no satisfaction in the world before him is this; It is the nature and design of life to keep man dissatisfied. That way he will always keep looking for something that will satisfy him, always keep on looking for more than his life has to offer. As he seeks something greater, the mortal man’s mind will then start to wonder if there was a meaning to all his toil. Seeing his toil as useless he will then look for a greater purpose to life, something bigger than the life he surveys as flawed through his eyes.

And through these questions and searches the mortal man starts to think of a greater being than he, he thinks of a God. So I ask myself, is the concept of a God then anymore worth pursuing than everything else in life that seems worthless? Isn’t it also a chasing after the wind?

But my eyes can not deny what they see, that all men are driven by something. All men live for a dream, a particular picture of something they want in their life. The only problem with these dreams is that they live only as long as the dreamer, they die when he dies. Only a few dreams outlive the dreamer but even these can not be grasped by those alive as they perfectly were by the dreamer who dies. It is all pointless then. But I see a recurrent theme, all men are driven by a dream regardless of whether it outlives them or dies with them. They all say ‘you gotta believe in some thing’.

If all life is but a chasing after a dream, a chasing after the wind, then there is nothing I can do but join in. But if I must believe in some dream then I choose to believe in a dream that will live longer than me and is greater than my own. I choose to believe in a dream that has lived for centuries, a dream that started with time and is said will never end. I choose to believe in a God who has been preached for hundreds of years. A God who has outlived men, traditions, civilizations and cultures. Anything that has survived that long and never fades away, no matter the darkness of the times of man or the severity of his follies, is worth giving my time and energy to than something that will end when I die.

The dream or idea of a God called Jehovah or Yahweh the “I am what I am” has been around for 2000 plus years and is still alive. There has to be something in that! I feel that idea is worth giving my life to for I see nothing greater in this life, and so till I find greater an occupation I will pursue the God called Yahweh and see what he is all about. And if one night I should not wake, I pray my God my soul to take.

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