Is That All There Is?

Is That All There Is?

In one of his plays Shakespeare describes Macbeth as being in abject despair.  He has lost his wife and his position of power.  All of his great ambitions have been crushed and life seems utterly empty.  In his hopelessness he declares:

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.  It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

That soliloquy reminds me of the hauntingly pessimistic words in Mark Twain’s autobiography:

A myriad of men are born; they labor and sweat and struggle for bread . . . age creeps upon them; infirmities follow . . . and the joy of life is turned to aching grief.  At length, ambition is dead, pride is dead; vanity is dead; longing for release is in their place.  It comes at last . . . and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence; where they achieved nothing.

It is normal and even good to ask, “What is the ultimate meaning of my life?”

The problem comes when one does not discover the right answer.  Tragically people in that frame of mind, seeing no purpose in continuing to live, will as a result take their own life.

History is filled with people who mistakenly thought that wealth and pleasure would guarantee them happiness.  J. Paul Getty was once considered the richest man in the world.  In disillusionment and discontent, at age 75 he wrote:

“A man can attend only so many parties and dances without getting bored.  He can drink only so much champagne and paint the town red only so many times before he wakes up to the realization that he’s wasting a very great deal of time and energy on meaningless things.”

This is echoed in the book of Ecclesiastes.  King Solomon was able to personally seek to find fulfillment and meaning in wealth, power, fame and material achievement.  He discovered that all of that was “vanity and striving after wind.”  His final conclusion:

“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”  - Eccl. 12:13

- Leonard White

______

Abortion and Murder

Those who desire to defend abortion as not being condemned by the Bible sometimes appeal to Exodus 21:22-23.  In the King James Version these verses read:

If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.  And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life.

The argument based on this passage goes like this:

ï  The law of Moses prescribed the death penalty for murder,

ï  In some cases of an aborted fetus the death penalty was not imposed,

ï  Therefore, the fetus that was killed was not considered to be a human being.

The problem with this logic is that it assumes (incorrectly) that the passage has reference to miscarriage, i.e., the death of an unborn fetus.

The word translated by the KJV as “fruit” is translated “child” in 72 other places in the Old Testament.

The Hebrew word for “depart” is commonly used in the Old Testament to mean normal childbirth, as in Gen 25:25:  Esau “came out” (was born) red and hairy.

Verse 22 in the ESV reads: “hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out.”

The NET has: “hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely.”

What this passage is actually saying is this:

If a woman is maliciously caused to give birth prematurely, but there is no serious harm to mother or baby, then a fine is to be levied.

If however, there is the death of either mother or child, then the death penalty is to be imposed – “life for life.”

- Leonard White



A Psalm of Life

Life is real!  Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

View Full Content Source:
https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/resources/articles/2026/03/29/is-that-all-there-is