In the well-known international bestseller... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favour from the Lord.
Proverbs 8:35

In the well-known international bestseller, “The Café on the Edge of the World”, by John Strelecky, the focus is on the question of the meaning of life. The plot is simple: an overworked advertising manager gets lost in a café in the middle of nowhere. As he reads the menu there, he comes across three questions:

Why are you here?
Are you afraid of death?
Are you living a full life?

At first he is sceptical. But then he gets absorbed with the questions and discusses them with the waitress, the cook and a guest. As a result, a gradual argument about the meaning of life unfolds.

Strelecky’s answer is: “Do whatever you want to do and whatever suits your purpose.” Elsewhere, he puts it this way, “We all determine our own destiny.” Strelecky, then, considers self-actualisation to be the only thing that makes sense.

It is particularly striking how quickly the author deals with the question of the fear of death. According to him, this fear can be eliminated by achieving everything one wants to do in life.

What does the Bible say about this? It shows us that man has long had a meaningful destiny because he is a creature of God. And therefore the highest, best and most beautiful meaning of life is to have fellowship with God and to live out His good will. How we can come into this happy communion with God is what many of the texts in this calendar inform us about. “Finding life”, then, does not mean finding or realising ourselves, as Strelecky thinks. On the contrary – we find it only in God. And the fear of death then gives way to the anticipation of eternity with God in heaven.

Today’s reading: Deuteronomy 9:18-29 · Matthew 24:1-14