This question has been beleaguered me for a good six months following the yet unexplained highs and lows in my physical body. I have wrestled with it on my own for not wanting to pull down those around me that I love. It is a lonely place.

A few weeks ago I posed it on a forum, and the thread offered some interesting and some flippant advice. Its almost as if people are too scared to think about it and that's ok, I realise that not everyone passes by this cross-roads at the same time.

For me it is like the final frontier of religious deconstructionism, being that institutional christianity implies that we all have a 'purpose' and a 'destiny' and that you need to find out what that is. Many people die to life in the process.

The journey that I have been walking embraces the idea that to understand that God loves me/us is the centripetal message of the Gospel. That out of that comes an organic lifestyle and opportunities to really love others.

I don't profess to fully 'get it' yet, albeit that I am trying.

I stumbled across a quote that I am beginning to believe holds truth and a partial answer to the question at hand:

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
~Gil Bailie

In the process of the forum thread discussion, the etymology of the words "life" and "meaning" came up and they also provide some further enlightenment...

Life
Origin: bef. 900; ME lif(e); OE līf; c. D lijf, G Leib body, ON līf life, body; akin to live 1

So life also means body or perhaps simply that we are alive?

Meaning
1. what is intended to be, or actually is, expressed or indicated
2. the end, purpose, or significance of something

And putting these two together "what is the meaning of life?" for me would be to ask "what is intention/significance of my being alive?", "why am I breathing?".

See how that could relate to Gil Bailie's quote? That if there exists a 'purpose' it may simply be to come alive and do that which we truly love. So as we are created in the image of the Father so then too are we born to create?!

The other thing though that I am wondering is if we live for the moment and there really is no particular purpose for living, then how do we find the balance between nihilism and sensualism?