Do you read Outside Magazine?  If you enjoy outdoor adventure, you might. Celebrating its fortieth year of publication this year, Outside has made a name for its coverage and lauding of all things done in the wild, be it climbing, cycling, surfing, paddleboarding, sky diving, and more.  I mention Outside because its latest issue (I am a long time subscriber) is titled, "The Meaning of Life."  As editor Christopher Keyes acknowledges, perhaps this is too grandoise a title, but his intention, he adds, is to present life as the magazine supposes it to be, one grand stream of flourishing and adventure.  After all, as so many readers believe, there's nothing else beyond this present existence.
     When once asked about the meaning life, well known atheist Richard Dawkins replied, "That's not a valid question."  Yes, life is here, Dawkins is suggesting, but because we have no reason to suppose it ought to be here, why should we believe that it should have any meaning?  Though unlike Dawkins Outside believes life to be meaningful, it also believes that this life is terminal:  we are born, we live, and we die.  And that, as Albert Camus famously observed, is absurd:  what's the point?
     Well, the magazine's editors will reply, as long as we are here, here in this magnificent world, why should we not maximize our enjoyment of it?  Why should we not pursue everything this existence has to offer?
     Fair enough.  Even Ecclesiastes says, in chapter nine, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."  Yet Ecclesiastes also reminds in its final chapter that, "Whatever else you do, remember God."  I love adventure as much as anyone.  I've devoted a good deal of my life to pursuing it.  Forty years living on the other side of faith, however, has made me put adventure in a much different light.  Adventure and a zest for life are like candles.  They burn brightly and wonderfully, but eventually they go the way of all candles:  they burn out.
     Remembering God is like a candle, too.  It burns brightly and wonderfully, illuminating and framing all we do.
     Unlike adventure, however, God will always be there to remember.