What is the point?

To stand beside your own father's open coffin definitely makes you think about the meaning of life. And since I found myself in this, inevitable, situation a few days ago, the seriousness of existence hit me as never before.
Why life? Why death? Why struggle? Why becoming a parent? Why laughter? Why tears?
What is the point?
I look at my fellow citizens and see confusion and despair. Most of them live from day to day, making short-term plans, laying out some hopes and expectations, trusting in their own strength, goodness and capability to pull things through one more day. The fierceness of presenting their own ego is so powerful, that one of them did not respect my eulogy I presented for my father at the reception, but criticized me and what I said. All in order to make himself important. I forgive him, dearly.
But all this makes me sad about the world. This is a miracle of paradox that people go on living, struggling and getting older without committing suicide in heaps along the way. What is the point? Humanism? Love for their fellow man? Fear of pain and death? And what is the hope? If the only one certain point is death and end of all that? The older they get, the more scared they become... I have seen it so many times...
This hopelessness is a killer, yet the only real hope gets rejected, ridiculed, tramped upon and tossed away, because it demands a profound, massive change and sacrifice of their pride.
Sure, they are religious - at least some of them, for a season, in order to maybe earn some favor with some unpronounced deity, just in case, without much faith. Like buying investment checks... And counting on the bank's credibility.
Nothing is my own doing. All I have and do is from God. My hope is from Him, my life is from Him, my every breath belongs to Him. Nothing I do or decide can change that, but prayer and worship can and will bring Him Glory, and, bring me closer to Him.
The point?

One of the clearest demonstrations that the pursuit of our joy and the pursuit of God's glory are meant to be one and the same pursuit is the teaching of Jesus on prayer in the gospel of John. The two key sayings are John 14:13 and 16:24. The one shows that prayer is the pursuit of God's glory. The other shows that prayer is the pursuit of our joy. In John 14:13 Jesus says, "Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." In John 16:24 he says, "Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And the chief act of man by which the unity of these two goals is preserved is prayer. Therefore, Christian Hedonists who pursue in God's glory the fullness of their own joy will above all be people of prayer. Just like the thirsty deer buckles down to drink at the brook, so the characteristic posture of the Christian Hedonist is on his knees.

from http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/
ByDate/1983/410_Prayer_The_Power_of_Christian_Hedonism/

Could I Be Called a Christian

from "Consider The Cost" by Steve Camp

Could I be called a Christian
If everybody knew
The secret thoughts and feelings
Of everything I do
Could they see the likeness
Of Christ in me each day
Could they hear Him speaking
In every word I say

Could I be called a Christian
If my faith I did not show
If I did not go to places
Where the Lord would have me go
If I do not love His truth
If I do not guard His trust
If I cherish more than Jesus
My greatest hidden lust

To obey all He’s commanded
To do all that He said
To be His true disciple
To place no confidence in the flesh
To glory in Christ Jesus
It’s He who justifies
To find your life you must lose it
To live you first must die
Let every man examine his own life
Could I be called a Christian

Could I be called a Christian
And believe not His Holy Word
If I take Him as my Savior
And then refuse Him as my Lord
If I could not love the outcast
And am not burdened for the lost
If I fail to deny myself
And each day take up my cross