What gives your life meaning?

Have you ever felt like a balloon that is not tethered, drifting aimlessly, not able to chart your own course? Have you ever felt like a person who stumbles in the dark and is not quite sure of where you are going?

Have you ever felt like one thing after another keeps piling up on top of you until you are no longer able to bear the load?

At times like these, we search for meaning. Meaning gives significance to what we do, helps make sense of where we are, and makes life worth living. Life's meaning is certainly different for a 20-year-old than a 40- or a 60-year-old person. But at whatever age, meaning gives purpose and direction to life. Meaning provides a key to shifting the load you carry so that it is bearable.

What gives you meaning? Your job? Your family? Becoming a millionaire?

Coach Lou Holtz has offered this tidbit for thought: "If you want to be happy for a day, eat a good meal. If you want to be happy for a week, shoot a good game of golf. If you want to be happy for a month, buy a new car. If you want to be happy for a year, win the lottery. If you want to be happy for much, much longer, have someone in your life who misses you when you are gone and waits for you to return."

The coach's meaning here is that the smell of a new car does not and cannot replace the meaning that human relationships give us. But if we go even deeper, what gives ultimate meaning in our lives?

Who or what gives us the wherewithal to deal with the loss of a loved one and the fear of our own death? Who or what gives us the vision to see the bigger picture when key parts of our lives fall apart? When there is serious illness, job loss or broken relationships, who or what is the cement that secures these cracks in the foundation?

For billions of people, religion -- some kind of relationship to a higher being -- provides that ultimate meaning. For each religion, that higher being is defined and described differently. But for most believers, God -- in some way, shape or form -- ultimately makes their lives worth living.

The God who gives my life meaning inspired a man named Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) to write the following: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring your love, where there is darkness, light, where there is sadness, joy. Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord, and where there is doubt, true faith in you. O Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, in giving that we receive, and in dying that we are born to eternal life."

The Rev. Fred Nijem is pastor at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Warner Robins.

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 4:26 PM with the headline "What gives your life meaning? ."