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What is Nihilism?: The Problem of the Modern Age
In a time when the world needs strong voices of people in the faith, I feel constricted to speak about the truth. I feel nervous to actually put pen to paper and write. And it’s not for the cliche reasons – that we are living in an increasingly anti-Christian world or that I don’t feel confident in the knowledge that I have. Those may be true, but honestly, they are not a deterrent for me. Instead, I feel defeated by looking out at the mass of knowledge; it’s like a deep, deep ocean. My voice is like a person who jumps in and thinks arrogantly that I can swim across it without any help. I’m scared that once I write down my words, once I jump into that ocean, I’ll drown. And no one wants to work at something with their heart, spending hours crafting and shaping their message, for it to fall flat once you shout it into the void. Nihilism is destroying us.
Nihilism permeates this post-modern world we are living in, and nihilism cuts to the heart of what I want to do and leaves it there bleeding. This belief in ‘nothingism,’ that life has no meaning and no real reason, has come to define my generation. “Nothing really matters.” And so, we disdain the life that we’re living. What’s the point of it all? We “quiet quit” our jobs and do the bare minimum because we are finding that those jobs do not bring us happiness and fulfillment. We abandon relationships because others don’t seem to ‘show up’ enough for us and bring us joy. We give up on the good, beautiful, and lasting in culture and life because it doesn’t represent ‘me.’ And through all of this, we don’t realize that we are drawing the circle smaller and smaller on what makes life meaningful. So we wake up one day and realize that “Nothing really matters to me.” And we wonder why suicide rates are climbing, especially among American teens and preteens.
Nothing New Under the Sun
Though Nihilism was coined in the 19th century as a term describing a philosophical mindset, it’s not an outlook that is just a product of the industrial revolution. It is a feeling that is familiar to the human psyche throughout the ages. In fact, Solomon wrote of it in the mid-10th century B.C. when he said,
“7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. 11 No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.” ~ Eccl. 1:7-11, NIV
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‘There is nothing new under the sun.’ ‘What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again.’ What truer words have been spoken? Even the very idea of nihilism, viewed as some new thing that humanity has created with the onset of modernism was described almost three thousand years before.
But, where does that leave us? Nihilism seems to be part of the bent of the fallen man, this feeling of life being repetitive, meaningless, and mundane. But this is not the redeemed way- the abundant way- to view the life we’ve been given. When we give way to nihilism, we give way to hopelessness. And when hopelessness takes root, we will not accomplish anything because what is the point of even getting out of bed?
Every Day is Precious
I write this during the quiet of naptime on my kitchen counter. Nestled to my chest is my 7-week-old baby – snug in a wrap. I count her quiet breaths and pause… There is nothing new under the sun, especially for a God who knows all and has seen all things. But miraculously, on my chest, is a person who has never lived before. She is a new thing, a new wonder, who could only exist at this moment. As her little hand cradles her face pressed against me, I recognize that this feeling of meaninglessness is so caught up in the netherworlds of our minds and our feelings that we never actually step out of our heads to breathe the fresh air of reality. Yes, babies have been born since the dawn of time, but this baby sleeping now has only been born once. This life that we live now has only been lived once.
This day that you have been given now may only be lived once.
And suppose I am so caught up in how this day is meaningless, how my job is meaningless, how doing another load of dishes, another load of laundry, another diaper change is meaningless. In that case, I will never ever experience the beauty that I will only have this child when she is 7 weeks one day old – once. I will only have this moment when I have just turned 27 once. I will only have September 2nd, 2022 once – and that is true for everyone in all of history.
“So teach us to number our days so we may get a heart of wisdom.” ~ Ps. 90:12 ESV
A heart of wisdom may only be gained when we realize both the brevity and importance of each day we live. Only then can we step forward with a purpose to make the most of the time we’ve been given now.
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