With this material, we want to offer you our conclusions for some of the questions which may trouble you, as they have troubled mankind over the centuries. We think that in these chapters you will find concise, valid, and intellectually credible answers to life's deepest and most critical questions. These answers, we believe, are based on the existence of a living, loving, personal God.

THE MODERN PREDICAMENT

The world is changing rapidly. Our daily routines are often maddening. We can barely keep up with the pace. Each year we vow that life will be different, and then, as the new year arrives, we find ourselves in the midst of the same old struggles.

We often vacillate between our feelings of inferiority or rejection and our self-serving sense of superiority. We all want to be accepted. We want to be valued not because of what we do but simply because we are. We want to see that our contribution to society validates our existence. Where do we find acceptance? How do we measure individual worth? Where is the deep sense of fulfillment we long for?

Many of us live life with disappointment and long for something more, something to fill the growing void, to correct the innate sense that something is wrong. In moments of quiet reflection we admit to pessimism about the future. And why not? Neither self-love nor self-deprecation provide fulfillment.

This sense of hopelessness is not new. Shakespeare said of life, "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" (Macbeth). What is missing? In mo-ments of quiet reflection, what is it that pulsates at the core of our struggles? Is there hope? Is there an ultimate meaning to life? In a culture that rejects the idea of absolutes and embraces relativism, numerous suggestions come to mind.

Advocates of New Age reincarnation tell us that the purpose of life is to get it right so you do not have to come back and do it again and again and again. But who sets the standard for doing it right? Can I know that I am doing it right?

Some suggest that life is what you make it. You have the controls. Live for your-self. Do what makes you happy. Buy that new car or another house. Get more money. But is fulfillment in life really found in loving things and using people?

Others suggest that our purpose in life is to leave our world better than we found it. But is the world better today than ten years ago? One hundred years ago? What is our point of reference to measure a "better" world?

Then there is always the fatalistic view of life. The fatalist says that the events of life are determined by fate, and therefore are inevitable, that there is no ultimate meaning to life or anything else. To the fatalist, life is "chasing after the wind."

In the hectic pace of everyday living we have learned to cope, or at least escape, to avoid dealing with the deeper issues of life. Not all of life is bleak, but most of us will admit that in times of sober reflection we long for something more.

Before addressing the meaning of life, we want you to know the basis for the answers presented. This material is our honest attempt to share the reason for the hope that we have. We believe answers do exist, reasonable, logical answers that can give you tremendous cause for joy.