Barbie, Billie Eilish, and Jesus

A caveat before I begin: I’m neither a student of popular culture nor trying to be cool.

But certain happenings catch my attention because they address our universal need for meaning and purpose.

Take the 2023 surprise blockbuster movie, Barbie, based on the Mattel children’s doll of the same name. Directed by Greta Gertwig, the film has grossed nearly 1.5 billion dollars. It’s a fantasy, exploring gender roles, identity, and body image as well as deeper issues of meaning and purpose through the popular Mattel line of dolls featuring Barbie.

I’ve only seen snippets of the film. But what grabbed my attention was the closing song, What Was I Made For?, sung by Gen Z musician Billie Eilish. It’s the haunting background song where Barbie finally meets her original designer and decides to become human. The tune won an Academy Award at the recent Oscars for Best Original Song.

Eilish is a poster child for her Gen Z cohorts: gritty, honest, weaned on the Internet, and thus often depressed and confused. I include the entire lyrics of What Was I Made For? below:

I used to float, now I just fall down
I used to know, but I'm not sure now
What I was made for
What was I made for?

Takin' a drive, I was an ideal
Looked so alive, turns out I'm not real
Just something you paid for
What was I made for?

'Cause I, I
I don't know how to feel
But I wanna try
I don't know how to feel
But someday, I might
Someday, I might

When did it end? All the enjoyment
I'm sad again, don't tell my boyfriend
It's not what he's made for
What was I made for?

'Cause I, 'cause I
I don't know how to feel
But I wanna try
I don't know how to feel
But someday I might
Someday I might

Think I forgot how to be happy
Something I'm not, but something I can be
Something I wait for
Something I'm made for
Something I'm made for

The title question, What was I Made For?,  begs an answer. Secular people (and honestly some people of faith also) search for horizontal solutions. Relationships, wealth, power, experiences all are faulty substitutes if they leave out God.

Centuries earlier, a professor of rhetoric was on a similar search. In his spiritual autobiography, Confessions, Augustine chronicles his journey for what he was made for. Prior to his conversion, he led a profligate life, roaming the Mediterranean world followed by his praying mother, Monica. Eventually, upon hearing the preaching of Ambrose, bishop of Milan, Italy, Augustine gave his life to Christ.

In perhaps the most famous quote from Confessions, Augustine writes:

“Because you have made us for Yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in You.”

Jesus makes a corollary statement in John 17:3:

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Eternal life is the durable quality of existence that only God can give. And that life is found only in relationship with Jesus Christ, the only true God.

That’s what we were made for.

May Billie Eilish (and many others) find the only answer to their question.