What if this world wasn’t created but just sprang up out of a big bang? What if there is no God? What if there is no after-life? What if our lives have no purpose or meaning? What if after we die, there’s nothing? 
Would that free us to truly live? Now that we don’t have to worry about the consequences of our actions (no hell to punish us), we can live only for the pleasures of this world? Perhaps we can for the time being, but I cannot help but think how futile and miserable that kind of life would be, if true. 
I heard a story of Buddhist monks who would spend days arranging colored sand into a beautiful and structured pattern (sand Mandala). Then, they would destroy the mandala and pour the now greyish sand into the river to signify that ultimately life has no meaning… 
I genuinely believe some people would prefer it that way. They want this life to have no meaning, so that they can simply live for the pleasures of the moment. But I know I can’t. I will either go crazy or commit suicide if I was convinced this life has no meaning because it has no Maker. 
Some might say, “But you can create your own meaning!” They misunderstand. The very definition of meaning is that it has something to point to. When someone asks you for directions and you point your finger to where he should go, the “meaning” of the finger is where it’s pointing to. The finger is not what you are trying to draw your attention to, but what it “points to” is what you are trying to draw his attention to. But if this life is not point to anything (because there’s nothing outside of this life), then this life has meaning. You cannot give it meaning when it has no meaning. 
I’m so thankful for Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” 
God – an intelligent, personal, loving, gracious, and an awesome being – created this world in which we live. 
Life is worth living. Take each day with thanksgiving.
PH