RESOLUTIONS ARE MEANINGLESS

The 1981 Academy-award-winning movie, ‘Chariots of Fire’ depicts the lives of gold medal winning British runners, Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, who competed in the 1924 Paris Olympics. The movie contrasts the lives of the driven Abrahams and the devout Liddell. Abrahams responds to prior defeats with hard work and a motivation bordering on vengeance to come back and be victorious in the 100m final. Liddell, on the other hand goes to the extreme of giving up his spot in his main event- the 100m, because the heats were to be held on a Sunday and his faith did not allow him to run on a Sunday. He goes on to participate and win in the 400m despite not being favored to win. For Liddell, running brought glory to God and he promptly leaves for China to join his missionary family after his success. One of the most poignant moments in the film is when Abrahams is getting ready to run the 100m and is talking to his mate, Aubrey, “I am 24 years old and have never experienced contentment …….as I start the race and am looking down that stretch, I have 10 seconds to prove the reason for my existence. I used to be afraid of losing, now I am afraid to win”.

What Abrahams is saying is that when you have spent all your life to get to the top and when you actually do get to the top, you will recognize that the top is a lonely place that will not satisfy.

The New Year is a time for resolutions, the objective being to become better versions of ourselves or to get to a desirable goal. We also burden ourselves with projects and aspirations that extend through several years, hoping to arrive at a top that we have defined. King Solomon ruled over the nation of Israel at the zenith of its splendor. He says, ‘ I undertook great projects ——–. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. ……. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun’ (Eccl 2). Can we not readily identify with Solomon’s statement? Can man at the end of his long journey, full of toil and sacrifice, find meaningfulness in his efforts? The answer is no because the reality of death cuts away any attempt to reconcile life’s pursuits with meaning.

I remember my own story of growing up in a remote corner of the world and dreaming of getting into a top tier medical school. However the opportunities for competing at that level were non-existent for me at high school. I had to somehow find motivation and cobble together resources to make an attempt. Of course, my joy knew no bounds when I did get in to one of the top medical schools in the country some 30 years ago. But as life unfolded for me at the top, so did meaninglessness. I recognized that the brutal nature of death- the great equalizer was the reason for the meaninglessness. I searched for answers through religion, philosophy and associations but came up empty. And then when I fortuitously started to read the Bible, I came across the claims of Jesus Christ. In his statement, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16), I found the motive, the means and the guarantee that death would be annulled and meaning would be restored to life. All I need to do was to accept his words. I realized that being a Christian in the traditional sense and knowing Christ were different. In my second year of college, I invited Christ into my life and contentment came home.

Resolutions by themselves might get you to the top, but the top is not a place of contentment. Without God, in the words of Voltaire, ‘Life is a bad joke’, but for a man who has found God, it is the fullness of life.

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