"What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" (Matthew 16:26). And the psalmist reminds us that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14).
These ten stories about the meaning of life, purpose and self-image, retold in our own words, include famous people who reached the top and found it empty, an artist's three great questions, a climber who found joy in the struggle and several stars who struggled with how they saw themselves. Each ends with a takeaway for sermons or reflection.
Stories in this collection:
- "Was This It?": Phil Jackson's Empty Victory
- "Sheer Joy": Why George Mallory Climbed Everest
- I'd Pick More Daisies: If I Had My Life to Live Over
- "Is That It?": George Harrison's Question
- Gauguin's Three Questions
- "Because I'm Human": Paul McCartney's Insecurity
- At Seventeen: Janis Ian and the Pain of Not Being Beautiful
- Finding Purpose: Angelina Jolie
- Judith Durham and the Mirror
- "I Don't Want to Be a Page in the Book": Jakob Dylan
"Was This It?": Phil Jackson's Empty Victory
Phil Jackson became one of the most successful coaches in basketball history, leading the Chicago Bulls in the days of Michael Jordan and later the Los Angeles Lakers to a string of championships. But before he turned to coaching, he was a player with the New York Knicks in the late 1960s and 1970s.
In 1973 the Knicks won the NBA championship, clinching the title in Los Angeles. For Jackson, it was the ultimate goal, the dream he had been chasing since childhood.
A little later, back in New York, he went out to celebrate with family and friends. The restaurant was crowded with celebrities, including film stars such as Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. It should have been one of the happiest nights of his life.
Yet in his book Sacred Hoops, Jackson recalled that the deep sense of connection he had felt with his teammates on the night of victory already seemed far away. Instead of being overwhelmed with joy, he felt empty and confused. He kept asking himself whether this was it. Was this what was supposed to make him happy? Clearly, he concluded, the answer lay somewhere else.
Later he came to understand what had been missing. What he lacked, he wrote, was spiritual direction.
Takeaway: Achieving our dreams cannot fill the space only God can fill. "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you" (Augustine, Confessions).
Source: Phil Jackson, Sacred Hoops (1995).
"Sheer Joy": Why George Mallory Climbed Everest
George Mallory was the famous British mountaineer who may, or may not, have been the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. He took part in the first three British expeditions to the mountain, in 1921, 1922 and 1924. On the last of them, in June 1924, he and his young climbing partner Andrew Irvine set out for the summit and never returned. They were last seen high on the north-east ridge, only a few hundred vertical metres from the top.
For seventy-five years their fate remained a mystery. Then, in 1999, an expedition searching for them found Mallory's body at about 8,160 metres (26,760 feet), well preserved by the cold, some 688 vertical metres below the summit. The discovery could not prove whether he had reached the top.
Accounts of the discovery describe him lying face down on a rocky slope, his head pointing up the mountain, his arms stretched above him and his fingers dug into the loose scree, as if he had tried to arrest his fall. A length of broken rope was still tied around his waist.
Mallory is often remembered for his supposed reply when asked why he wanted to climb Everest: "Because it's there." Another, longer answer is also widely attributed to him, although we have not been able to trace its original source.
In it, the speaker asks what the use of climbing Everest is, and answers at once: it is no use. There is no prospect of any gain. Perhaps doctors might learn a little about the human body at high altitude, but otherwise nothing practical will come of it. The climbers will bring back no gold or silver, no gems, no coal or iron, not a single foot of land that could grow food.
So, the speaker says, if you cannot understand that there is something in human beings that responds to the challenge of the mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself, upward and forever upward, then you will never see why we go. What we get from the adventure is sheer joy. And joy, after all, is the purpose of life. We do not live to eat and make money; we eat and make money so that we can enjoy life. That, the quotation ends, is what life means and what it is for.
Takeaway: We are made for more than survival and success. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says our chief end is "to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever." True joy is found in the One who made us (Psalm 16:11).
Source: Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition, 1999; quotation widely attributed to George Mallory, original source unverified.
I'd Pick More Daisies: If I Had My Life to Live Over
Often credited to "Nadine Stair, aged 85", this reflection is actually based on a piece by the American humorist Don Herold, "I'd Pick More Daisies", published in Reader's Digest in 1953. Here is its message in our own words.
Imagine someone near the end of a long life looking back and saying what they would do differently if they could live it all again.
They would dare to make more mistakes. They would stop trying so hard to be perfect. They would relax more, loosen up and be a good deal sillier than they had been on this trip. In fact, they can think of very few things they would take quite so seriously.
They would take more chances and more trips. They would climb more mountains, swim more rivers and watch more sunsets. They would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. They would probably have more real troubles, but far fewer imaginary ones.
They confess that they were one of those people who lived sensibly and cautiously, hour after hour and day after day. That doesn't mean they never had wonderful moments. But if they could do it again, they would have more of them, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.
They were the kind of person who never went anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, a raincoat and something for every emergency. Next time, they would travel lighter.
If they had their life to live over, they would go barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later into the autumn. They would skip more dull duties, ride more merry-go-rounds and pick more daisies. They would hug more children and tell more people that they loved them.
But, of course, none of us gets to live our life over again. We only have this one.
Takeaway: Life is a gift to be received with gratitude, not merely managed. "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24). "Teach us to number our days" (Psalm 90:12).
Source: Based on Don Herold, "I'd Pick More Daisies", Reader's Digest, 1953; often misattributed to Nadine Stair.
"Is That It?": George Harrison's Question
George Harrison was one of the Beatles, perhaps the most famous and influential pop group of all time. He knew fame on a scale few people ever experience. He knew the adulation of millions of fans, the satisfaction of mastering his craft as a guitarist and songwriter, and the knowledge that his music had helped shape a generation.
Yet when he looked back, in comments published in The Beatles Anthology, Harrison said something striking. Once you have had all the experiences, he said, met all the famous people, made some money, toured the world and received all the acclaim, you are still left asking, "Is that it?" Some people might be satisfied with that, he admitted, but he was not, and he still was not.
Harrison spent much of his life searching for spiritual meaning, especially in Hindu spirituality. He died of cancer in November 2001, still asking the deep questions that fame and fortune could not answer.
Takeaway: Even the greatest success leaves the human heart asking for more. Jesus offers what the world cannot: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10).
Source: The Beatles Anthology; reported by Ananova news service, 30 November 2001.
Gauguin's Three Questions
Paul Gauguin was a famous French artist of the late nineteenth century. He had been a sailor and then a stockbroker before devoting himself to painting. His marriage broke down, and in 1885 he left his Danish wife, Mette, and their five children in Copenhagen and returned to Paris to pursue his art.
He later went to the South Pacific, spending much of the 1890s in Tahiti, then a French colony, where he hoped to find refuge from European civilisation. His final years were marked by poverty, illness and despair. In 1897 he received news that his beloved daughter Aline had died. Deeply depressed and in debt, he wrote to a friend that he was planning to end his life.
Before he did, he wanted to paint one great canvas that would sum up all his thoughts. The result was his masterpiece, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, painted in 1897–98 and now held by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Read from right to left, the huge painting shows a baby and young women at the beginning of life, adults in the middle of daily existence, and finally an old woman near death. In the upper left corner, Gauguin inscribed the three questions in French.
After finishing the painting, Gauguin did attempt suicide, but he survived. He lived for several more years, dying in 1903 in the Marquesas Islands. But the questions he painted remain, the universal questions every one of us must face: where do we come from, what are we, and where are we going?
Takeaway: The Bible answers Gauguin's questions: we come from God, who made us in his image; we are loved but fallen people; and in Christ we are going home to him (Genesis 1:27; John 14:1–3).
Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; biographical sources on Paul Gauguin.
"Because I'm Human": Paul McCartney's Insecurity
He is often described as the most successful songwriter in history. His boyhood home in Liverpool has been preserved by Britain's National Trust. He is one of the most famous people in the world, he has been knighted by the Queen and his personal fortune runs into the hundreds of millions. And yet, by his own admission, he is insecure.
In 2002 Sir Paul McCartney was interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald. He was asked about his dispute with Yoko Ono, John Lennon's widow, over the order in which his and Lennon's names should appear on some of the songs they wrote together. Why would something like that matter to a man who had achieved so much?
McCartney's answer was disarmingly honest. It mattered, he said, because he was human, and humans are insecure. He challenged the interviewer to show him one who wasn't. Then he named some of the most powerful people in the world, including a former American secretary of state and two presidents, and suggested that each of them was insecure too, one of them very insecure.
Takeaway: No amount of success can secure our sense of worth. Only God's love can. "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3:1).
Source: Interview in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend magazine, 17 August 2002.
At Seventeen: Janis Ian and the Pain of Not Being Beautiful
Janis Ian is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter. In 1975 she released "At Seventeen", which became the biggest hit of her career and won her the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
The song is a deeply moving reflection on adolescence, beauty and rejection, told from the point of view of a woman remembering what she learned about the world as a seventeen-year-old girl who did not fit the ideal. It contrasts the popular, attractive girls who seemed to receive all the attention and romance with the plain and awkward ones who were left out.
She sings of the lonely girls who stayed at home on Friday nights while others went out, who pretended to have admirers they did not really have, who never received valentines and who were always the last to be picked for teams at school. The song suggests that the cruelty of those years left wounds that lasted long after school was over.
Part of the song's power is its honesty. Many listeners have found that it put into words feelings they had never been able to express: the hurt of being judged on appearance, and the fear that because they were not beautiful they were not worth loving.
The song reached number three on the American Billboard Hot 100, an unusual success for such a quiet and painful confession, and it has remained one of the best-known songs of the 1970s.
Takeaway: The world measures people by appearance, but God does not. "People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). The church should be a place where no one is left out.
Source: Janis Ian, "At Seventeen" (1975); described, not quoted.
Finding Purpose: Angelina Jolie
Like many of us, the actress Angelina Jolie went through a long period of trying to work out who she was.
In a 2003 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Jolie reflected that she felt more centred than she once had. She admitted that there had been times in her life when she was lost. She liked to think she had never been a bad person, but she had certainly gone through periods when she was not clear about who she was.
According to Jolie, what changed her was seeing the world. In 2001 she became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, and travelled to refugee camps and war zones. She described a time before that when she had no sense of purpose and never felt useful as a person.
She added that she believed many people share that feeling: a deep, unexplained pain that some try to numb with drugs or other harmful escapes, or that even leads them to want to end their lives, simply because they cannot switch it off and do not know where it comes from.
Takeaway: We find ourselves when we give ourselves away. Jesus said, "Whoever loses their life for me will find it" (Matthew 16:25). If you are struggling with feelings like these, please talk to someone you trust, or a doctor or local helpline.
Source: Interview in the Sydney Morning Herald, 28 October 2003.
Judith Durham and the Mirror
Judith Durham was one of Australia's first international pop stars. As lead singer of The Seekers, she toured Australia and the world in the 1960s and sang on a string of hits. The Seekers were the first Australian pop group to achieve major chart success in Britain and the United States, and in 1965 their single "I'll Never Find Another You" reached number one in the UK.
Yet while Durham seemed to be on top of the world, inside she was struggling. In contrast to her adoring fans, she became deeply unhappy with her weight and appearance. She came to dislike her face, which she thought was too round, with eyes that were too small. She disliked her fuller figure and believed it was unattractive.
When very thin models such as Twiggy became the fashion ideal of the 1960s, her self-loathing only grew. Even after losing a great deal of weight, she still saw herself as fat.
Durham later said that her unhappiness was matched by loneliness. She felt there was no one she could talk to about it. She said she was consumed by it. She did not know of anyone who could have changed the way she thought, who could have helped her believe that it was all right to look the way she did.
Judith Durham died in 2022, remembered by millions for her extraordinary voice, and by many for her honesty about the struggles behind the fame.
Takeaway: The mirror and the culture are poor judges of our worth. We are made in God's image and loved as we are. If you struggle with how you see your body, you are not alone; please talk to someone you trust or a health professional.
Source: Interviews with Judith Durham; biographical sources on The Seekers.
"I Don't Want to Be a Page in the Book": Jakob Dylan
Jakob Dylan is the lead singer of the American rock band The Wallflowers. He is also the son of Bob Dylan, and all his life he has had to live in the shadow of his famous father.
When the Wallflowers went on their early tours, Jakob found the audiences dotted with middle-aged fans of his father. Some came with long letters, many pages long, hoping that the more approachable younger Dylan would pass them on to his famously private father.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Jakob talked about the many books that had been written about his father, including history books analysing Bob Dylan's place in shaping modern culture. There are countless biographies, he said. In most of them, perhaps one page mentions the names of Bob's children. That is all.
And then he said something that many of us can understand: "I don't want to be a page in the book." He wanted his own life to matter, not just to be a footnote in someone else's story.
Takeaway: Many of us fear being forgotten or insignificant. But God knows each of us by name, and our names are written in his book (Isaiah 43:1; Luke 10:20).
Source: Interview with Jakob Dylan in Rolling Stone magazine.
Final thoughts
An empty celebration, a climber on Everest, a wish to pick more daisies, a Beatle's question, an artist's three questions, a superstar's insecurity, a song about being left out, an actress finding purpose, a singer and her mirror, and a son in his father's shadow. Each points to the deep human need for meaning and worth that only God can fully meet.
For further reading, Sopranu has a guide to the best books about the meaning of life and a review of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning.
Where are you looking for meaning, and how does God see you?
More stories you may like:
These stories are retold in our own words for teaching and reflection. Sources are credited under each story.
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