Some time ago a man just dropped in my office who obviously was despairing of life. It did not take long for me to know that he had virtually come to the end of his rope. He had no meaning, no purpose in existence. I had just been teaching to our church the Roman road of salvation and I decided that I would use that plan of salvation on him. I took that little book of Romans and I opened it to the first page where they asked the question, “Would you like to have eternal life?” And he said to me, rather emphatically, no. He said, as a matter of fact, that is the last thing in this world that he wanted was eternal life. He said that the finest thing that could happen to him would be to go to sleep and never wake up again.
Sometimes, he said, “I think about taking my own life, but I simply do not have the courage to do so. If I did I would end it all, and rid myself of this miserable existence.”
It’s a tragic thing but there are more people than you would ever imagine just like that today. In the most affluent and perhaps most educated society that has ever existed on the face of the earth, people have gained everything and they have learned almost everything except the secret to life. So, young people, in all of your learning and in all of your intellectual pursuits, if you have not yet learned the meaning of life, if you have not yet found the secret to a meaningful and a worthwhile life, then you’ve not really begun your education.