For every "what" there needs to be a "why." For some of us, we need more than simply an answer to the latter. For many of us, this is essentially a quest for meaning and significance of our lives. What makes life meaningful? How are we part of the grand plan of significance? The key thesis in this book is that God exists, and that is why we matter. With the ongoing pandemic, many people are dealing with disruptions, loneliness, deaths, sicknesses, health issues, in particular mental and spiritual well-being. These might lead them to question the meaning of life. Then comes racial issues which led to the rise of the "Black Lives Matter" as well as an "All Lives Matter" reaction by some quarters. Even in societies that pride on equality and freedom of expression, many people still go through crises of various types. Author and pastor Michael Sherrard focus on a "crisis of meaning" to probe behind the reasons why people insist their lives matter in the first place. Once we can understand that, the rest will come into place. He helps us go beyond mere feelings as a judge of our worth. For feelings are often too subjective to be reliable. Rather than letting our feelings, our skills, or our subjectivity determine our life's meaning and identity, why not go back to our Creator? How is that meaningful? In the quest for such answers, we start by observing the culture and society we are living in. Can our present situation of secularism and godless society bring everlasting meaning? What are the promises of atheism? What about morality? The author helps us take a critical look at the society we are in, on the emptiness of the "good life" we often assume we are in. Gradually, he switches gear to help us envision a world with God. Sherrard essentially says the following:
We are created with love
We are valued in love
We are loved.
God gives us life in accordance with His glorious grace. We are created to care for our world, cultivate good, and bring glory to God. In fact, our nature of wanting good in this world is rooted in God's goodness in us. We matter because we are called to glorify God through caring for the world we are in and loving people. One interesting argument that the author makes is the need for freedom to operate within certain boundaries. For true freedom exists only when we are within certain limits. This seems quite counter-cultural to our society's definition of total freedom as one without limits. He explains it via the lens of love and relationships. When we are free to love, we need to give others the freedom to choose how to respond. God loves us and gives us to freedom to respond. We learn about creative love. When we live in the light of choosing God's love, there is a chance for us to experience true joy. Life becomes more meaningful when we learn to live for someone else bigger than ourselves. Out of this freedom comes joy, which is the very virtue that will make our living strong and lasting. Joy is a powerful antidote for a lot of things.

In each chapter, Sherrard shows us how empty cultural catchphrases are when we are told to "be ourselves" when we don't really understand what that means. Understanding our identity is one of the most profound things that many have not really done or understood. If that is so, how can anyone be truly themselves when they don't know what that means? Thankfully, Sherrard provides us a map of how we could do just that. Through the lens of joy, we can see our identity more deeply, our calling more clearly, our loving more authentically, and our struggles more honestly. He ends with the wisdom chapter from Ecclesiastes to let the Bible point us the way, that life is only meaningful in God.

My Thoughts
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This is a book about living joyfully in the light of God's love. We all need that. One of the key questions we all need to answer from time to time is to ask ourselves: "Who am I?" This might seem to be elementary but Sherrard shows us it is fundamental to our search for meaning. In our fast-paced society, we are easily tempted to let secondary matters define our lives and colour our perspectives. Without recognizing our own primary needs, we become easily disillusioned with ourselves. The wise man in Ecclesiastes had done everything possible in life to find meaning, and yet he realizes that without God, everything is futile. What I appreciate in this book is not what Sherrard is saying but the journey to getting there. For instance, he helps us question conventional cliches and ponder on their lack of meaning. Sometimes, we commit two kinds of errors. The first kind is how we often give something more credit than they deserve. The second kind is how we fail to give enough credit where credit is due. In some way, Sherrard addresses both of these forms of errors and thought impediments to give us a runway toward joy, and from joy toward meaning.

The author helps us answer the perennial question about meaningful living, and he does this with an unabashed focus on God. This is commendable and forms a part of our faith. We all need to come to grips with the reason why we live at some point in life. Perhaps, for many of us, this question needs answering more frequently than we think, especially when we enter different phases of our lives. Each chapter gives us a chance to ask questions of ourselves that we don't usually get to ask. Every question offers us a glimpse of what we might have missed when trying to understand ourselves in our quest for meaning. I recommend this book not only to anyone desiring to know more about the meaning of life, but more importantly, to those who feel increasingly frustrated with what life is all about.

Michael Sherrard (MDiv, Luther Rice College & Seminary) is senior pastor at Crosspoint Community Church and faculty member at Summit Ministries. He is the author of Relational Apologetics and a national speaker specializing in a biblical worldview, ethics, and evangelism. He lives in Peachtree City, Georgia, with his wife, Terri Anna, and their five children.

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Books and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

The author of this book seems to think this book will encourage the reader. That may be so, but the first chapter was a real downer for me. He gets into some political or hot button issues right away just after he said he hopes this book would be a “reset of what you think about yourself, your significance, your purpose, and your value.” I wasn’t sure why he felt compelled to discuss those controversial topics early on. Later in the book when he talks about the challenges of his son with a rare genetic disorder, his writing becomes more real and would have made a good setting for the introduction of the book.

The book was written in 2020 during COVID-19 --- at least one place he assumed you would read this while the pandemic is still going on. He argues his case for why your life is meaningful after he reviews that we as a society have lost some of what makes our lives meaningful. If you are a Christian, you will most likely believe his main arguments. He has written a prior book on apologetics and you can see that type of support in this book. You may be interested in this book if you haven’t been fully exposed to the concepts around seeing your meaning and significance through God or if you are on a quest for meaning and have not found it yet. This book may also be for young people who are feeling disillusioned and want some assurance of their worth. In any case, you probably won’t agree with everything he says; at least I didn’t.

I feel the second half of the book became more interesting. Sherrard added a few more real-life illustrations to amplify his concepts. But the second half also showed where he added too many topics to the “why you matter” discussion. He briefly touches on topics such as the meaning of work, joy, identity, humility, desires, loving your enemies, hardship, hope, apathy, pride, ingratitude and living in the moment. Sherrard tried to cover too many topics that don’t appear tied to the overarching points of the book so you can clearly understand his messages. Maybe my prior knowledge of these topics also contributed to not seeing a lot of freshness and depth in their discussion.

His message came through the best when he talked about Ecclesiastes and related some of that book to what matters and what doesn’t matter. I scanned the Notes section of Sherrard’s book and found some interesting tidbits. Maybe the author was more relaxed in his writing at this point because I felt he was talking to the reader in a natural way there. If there was half stars ratings, I would give this book 3.5 stars. He makes a good case in supporting the reasons for why a person’s life matters. But I didn’t find most of his thinking on the main topics very fresh and interesting; many sub-topics also did not flow well into a coherent whole. Thanks to NetGalley and Baker Books for allowing me to read an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.