If you’ve ever wondered what is the meaning to life, you’re not alone.
It’s one of those questions that tends to show up when life doesn’t go according to plan. A diagnosis. A loss. A disappointment. A season that leaves you wondering, you thought you knew where you were headed, but now life is taking a detour. What does it all mean?
Most of us spend years trying to answer that question intellectually. We read books. Listen to podcasts. Search for frameworks that will make life make sense.
But what if the meaning of life isn’t something you solve?
What if it’s something you discover while living through the things you never would have chosen?
That question came up in a recent conversation on The Grandpa Channel with Jenny Richards, a Juilliard-trained pianist who unexpectedly found herself pursuing chaplaincy and working alongside cancer patients and their families.
Her answer wasn’t what you might expect.
Life Doesn’t Always Explain Itself
Jenny spoke candidly about losing her youngest sister to suicide. It’s a loss she admits she will never fully understand.
“I’ll never be able to make sense of it.”
For many people, the search for meaning begins with trying to explain suffering. We want reasons. We want answers. After all, life feels best with no loose ends.
But some experiences resist explanation.
Jenny’s perspective was not that pain eventually becomes understandable. Instead, she described a shift from trying to make sense of tragedy to asking how it might shape the way she lives.
In other words, meaning isn’t always found in an explanation.
Sometimes it’s found in what we become because of what we’ve lived through. Perhaps the meaning to life isn’t find in the pain, but what the pain shows us.
Jenny said that the pain of her sister’s death completely broke her open. And ultimately led her to a call of Chaplaincy. She might not be able to make sense of her sister’s death, but it could give her a new call and purpose.
What Cancer Patients Taught Her
As a hospital chaplain working with oncology patients, Jenny spends her days with people whose lives have been interrupted overnight.
A routine appointment becomes a cancer diagnosis.
After that, a “normal” week becomes a completely different future.
These experiences have deepened her appreciation for life’s fragility.
They’ve also changed the way she understands what matters.
Rather than becoming cynical, she described becoming more attentive. More aware. More grateful for ordinary moments.
A walk outside.
A child laughing.
The feeling of grass under your feet.
The things we often overlook become meaningful when we realize they aren’t guaranteed.
So What Is the Meaning to Life?
Near the end of our conversation, Jenny referenced author Kate Bowler and offered three simple ideas:
God is here. We are loved. And it’s enough.
It isn’t a formula.
Nor is it a system.
And certainly not an explanation for suffering.
Just a steadying truth.
Perhaps the meaning of life isn’t found in having every answer.
Perhaps it’s found in learning to love deeply, remain present, and keep moving forward even when life remains mysterious.
Reflection Questions
- Have you ever gone through something that changed your understanding of what matters most?
- Is there a part of your life you’re still trying to make sense of?
- What gives your life meaning today that you may have overlooked in the past?
Listen to the full conversation with Jenny Richards on The Grandpa Channel for a deeper exploration of grief, purpose, faith, and what life teaches us the hard way.
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