Venice

In one of his songs Keith Green sang “This world may promise love and beauty, but it lied to me!” I had my own experience of this kind after a trip to Venice many years ago. During a weekend trip to Italy, I visited this iconic cultural city. The time I spent there was great, and I enjoyed the beautiful architecture. But already on my flight back home I felt a deep dissatisfaction. I should have felt great after experiencing such a nice weekend, but the opposite was the case. I was just trying to get another “high” by traveling to another sight. Only that this kind of “high” didn’t last long. It disappeared almost as quickly as a beautiful show of fireworks would do.

All the attractions of this world – may they be in culture, sports or even in the beauty of nature itself – could seem very desirable in one moment and meaningless and vain in the next. They cannot satisfy the hunger for deep meaning in life for long. Apart, separated from the Creator of this world, nothing really does. It needs the connection with the Creator of life to discover a meaning in life that will not disappear eventually or turn out to be a lie. What Keith Green considered to be a lie, the apostle Paul described as loss and garbage in comparison to the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ” (Philippians 3:8). He had found a meaning that does not disappear as quickly as fireworks in the sky.