Choosing to Matter in an Uncaring Universe

Watching Andor alongside a recent article in The Atlantic helped something click for me about why I so strongly resonate with stories of rebellion. It isn’t the action or the aesthetics—it’s the moral logic underneath them.

Drawing on Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s The Mattering Instinct, the idea is that life isn’t about happiness so much as meaning. Life is temporary, and every living being is an intricate, energy-driven project engaged in a ceaseless struggle against entropy (The Atlantic).

Andor captures this well: ordinary people sacrificing not just happiness, but relationships—and even their lives—in rebellion against an Empire a million times stronger, because making something matter is worth the cost.

From an LDS perspective, this resonates deeply. This life is a time to learn how to live like God. That ongoing project of becoming gives my life meaning. My lifelong project of Christian discipleship matters not only for the eternal destiny of me and my family, but also for the people I interact with here and now. I want to help everyone I come in contact with receive these same promised blessings.

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