One of my favorite things about my favorite anime series, Oregairu, is that while it is, in one sense, a very traditional romcom, in another it stands by the boast of its full title: My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected. It’s something totally different. Part of that difference is how witty the source material is, but another is this: The journey for the three main characters has surprising depth, and it’s all centered on a declaration made by Hachiman about halfway through the series:
I want something genuine.
Hachiman’s statement breathes life into what our search as humans is all about. He justifies the way he lives—as if he doesn’t care about others, but really does; sacrificing for others while making himself the one who takes the punishment for it; keeping relationships surface-level when he really wants depth and meaning. But in the end, he wants what we all want: “something genuine.” For the Christian, we can easily fall into the trap that Hachiman has as the series begins—living a “fake” life while justifying it as authentic, but ultimately, we have those answers for purpose and meaning.
The secular person, however, does not. When asking the big questions of life—Is there a God? Why am I here? What is my purpose?—their answers are untenable for virtually anyone to live if they are indeed living an authentic life. Or they will love, as most choose, a life that isn’t ultimately genuine.
What do I mean? Let’s start with those huge questions. Christians and secular people alike may answer them with full belief that each is right: God is the loving Creator expressed in the Bible OR there is no God, only physics and matter; I am here because God loves me and made me OR I am here as accidentally as the result of millions of years of evolution, and billions of years of cosmic expansion before that; and my purpose is to love God and make Him known OR I have no real purpose at all, for I matter not in the grand schemes of things, and any legacy I’ve made will one day disappear.
That last statement, of course, is the hardest one to deal with. Everything up until then can make sense on both a heart level and an intellectual one (well, matter from nothing is definitely “faith,” but that’s for another time). But to be told you have no purpose? That there is no greater meaning to your being? That you don’t matter?
Well, that’s a hard pill to swallow.
But the godless approach to the universe tells us exactly that. There is no ultimate meaning to us being alive. Even if you did great things, even if you left a legacy lasting decades or centuries, even if you’re Shakespeare or Confucius or Buddha, it will all one day burn away—quite spectacularly, I might add—as the sun expands to incinerate everything on this planet. That is, of course, if people remember you beyond just a generation or two.
So instead, those without a belief in God are forced to create a purpose—to live for satisfaction, career, family, experiences, comfort. That’s all well and good—and necessary, I might add, in order to be healthy—but it lacks that “something genuine.” You are making meaning when your belief is that there is none.
At its heart, wanting authenticity is desiring truth, wanting to live in a way that makes sense according to our purpose, that fits what we were made to do. When the two disagree—what we believe about life and how we live it—we’re not only being disingenuous; we’re also functioning improperly as humans. From a secular standpoint, our emotional and intellectual well-being isn’t going to be satisfied, and from a Christian perspective, we aren’t doing what we were made to.
The Christian answers to those big questions allow us to be absolutely genuine in our lives. Will we always? No, we stumble and fail frequently, and those who aren’t living with repentance might as well believe in a secular way of life. But at our best, and increasing more and more as we go along on our walk with the Lord day by day, we are living according to the purpose we believe in. We are living genuine lives.
Secular people cannot do this, and while they may be able to convince themselves that the way they live is “right”—we’ve all seen plenty of this—it is just not according to their own definition of the universe. If they seek something genuine, they will find it impossible to reconcile their beliefs about why they are here with whatever meaning they have infused into their lives.
That’s a shaky and unstable ground to build a life upon.
I’m thankful that my ground is safe, that it is indeed built on a foundation of rock. That rock, Jesus Christ, is not only true, but He is also the fulfillment of the longing Hachiman gives voice to. He is the answer to our search for authenticity, meaning, purpose, and relationship. In Christ, we do not have to invent significance for our lives, as the secular person must; we receive it from the One who created us and loves us.
That’s why Hachiman’s declaration resonates so deeply. We all want something genuine. We want lives that matter, relationships that are real, and a purpose that isn’t merely self-constructed. Christianity boldly claims that such a thing exists—and that it is ultimately found in a person. In Jesus, the search for “something genuine” finally comes to a fitting and truthful end.
