A Call to Prayer: The Meaning of Life

Famed psychiatrist, philosopher, and author Viktor Frankl spent three years in four concentration camps. He was a prisoner at the mercy of sadistic Nazis and exposed to famine, sickness, slave labor, punishment and possible imminent execution. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl’s philosophy can be summarized as ‘humans are motivated by something called a will to meaning,’ which is the desire for meaning in life. Victor concluded there is always a reason to live, even in the worst conditions - there is always meaning in suffering. And if we can grasp this meaning, we can overcome even the most painful circumstances.

Viktor spelled out three main areas where humans find meaning in life. First, through achievement or accomplishment such as one’s work, doing a good deed or pursuing creativity. Viktor passed over an opportunity to leave the concentration camp on an escape attempt because he knew as a doctor, he was helping a lot of sick prisoners and found purpose in that in the camps. Secondly, relationships, or love, give meaning to life. Although he does not mention this in his writings, we as believers would put our relationship with God as our number one purpose or meaning in life, with all else stemming from there. Thirdly, Frankl speaks of finding meaning in suffering.

Of course, we didn’t go through the horrors of the Holocaust, yet many today are struggling with their own form of loneliness, pain, and loss. I know people who have suffered the early death of family members and are wrestling with the temptation to isolate themselves from the world. They turn away from God rather than run to Him where they could somehow see their pain turn into good.

Viktor states, “The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity - even under the most difficult circumstances - to add a deeper meaning to his life. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts, comforting others and giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” As believers, we would add that no one can take away our faith to walk with God.

Although 50% of Holocaust survivors who emigrated to America chose to live in New York City, many came to the city where I live, Kansas City, because of the strong Jewish community and help from the Holocaust Survivor Services. There are still 62 known survivors in this city. Once a month, my husband and I go to the Jewish Community Campus to hear a survivor tell their story. Some are 94 or 97 but still have vim and vigor and have overcome insurmountable challenges.

I often pray for those who say they are still wrestling with God. In reflecting on their loved ones who perished in the ghettos, camps, or death march, the question arises, ‘Where was God?’ Children of survivors share their stories of being the next generation, which comes with privilege and burden as they live with those subject to significant trauma. (I recommend the secular book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk regarding overcoming trauma).

This phrase echoes very accurately regarding the horrors of the Holocaust, “We will never forget.” May it also be said, “Let there be healing from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

“But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.’ ‘Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me. Your sons shall make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you.’” (Isaiah 49:14-17).

And so the Lord speaks over all who will come to Him. He is our defender. He is our healer. He is the one who gives “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:3).

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