Our Purpose in Life
I was preparing another article at my desk and I heard that familiar “bing” tone from my phone notifying me of activity on my Facebook page. So I looked and I noticed how many people are responding to the articles. I know how blessed I am to be part of God’s will upon my life. I am humbled, but I also become apprehensive that I may fail, or worse, that I may impose my will over God’s will. There are others who were called by God that faltered when they allowed their worldly ways to surface. For example, Moses went against God’s specific instructions (Number 20:8-12), and King David counted the people who he was ruling over in a way that glorified his own accomplishments. So why does a perfect God, who knows all things, and who can do all things, rely on imperfect human beings to do His works? There is an answer to this question of course. So let’s discover one of the greatest attributes that God devised; purpose.
We know that God works through His humans. In fact, the only time God did not do work through humans was during Creation. In Genesis 1, it tells us that God created everything in the Heavens and on Earth for us, then God breathed life into us. And from that point onward God works through humans. In fact, the Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15:22-23) touches on this as well. In this parable, when the younger son returned home, God did not say, “I will go and prepare a meal for you.” Instead, God commanded that His servants (those in His home) make a great meal to celebrate the younger son’s repentance. So here on Earth, God relies on His children to do His works. Now why does God do such a thing? If God is so powerful that He created the universe, then why does He call on us to do His works?
Have you ever asked yourself the question, “What is the purpose of life?” We all have asked ourselves this question either out loud or in the quietness of our own mind. Most likely, though, we have personalized the question even further by asking ourselves, “What is the purpose of my life?” This is a deep question, and so we may come up with an arbitrary answer to end the discomfort of the challenge. We may say to ourselves that our purpose is to raise children, or do good in the world, or maybe our purpose is to be centered around waiting for the next hyped technology device. These kinds of answers leave us feeling as though we’re living our lives going from one day to the next filling in the gaps trying to find happiness; an ever elusive task in an overly complex world. And why is happiness elusive? Because happiness without purpose is empty. To find the deep happiness we desire, we are to first discover the purpose of life. It is only when we discover our purpose according to God's will that we experience the deep sincere peace for which we all search. This is why the Apostle Paul found so much joy in his life even though he sat in prison. He fulfilled God’s purpose for his life. And I further sincerely believe that John the Baptist, knowing that he was about to be put to death, knew he served his purpose by proclaiming the coming of Christ. John the Baptist embraced the joy of serving God and found comfort to endure.
As children of God, we are to have a higher outlook on our lives than just living a temporary existence on this planet. If we look beyond living our lives, beyond doing whatever it is we are doing at this very moment (assuming you weren’t reading this article), we need to consider where the purpose for our existence originates. We need to discover the greater purpose for our lives so we may transform despair to joy, weakness in heart to strength in character, and a sense of having no value here on Earth to having a life of purpose. By doing so, we transform our soul to having an uncontrollable passion to live in a way that compels us to share with others what we are experiencing.
Consider everything from the smallest organism on Earth, which requires the most powerful microscope to view, to the largest stars in the universe, and you will discover it all has a purpose. Our sun warms the earth so that we may exist; a worm aerates the soil so water may penetrate deeper to make vegetation healthier; a moth becomes food for a bat; the sea provides a place for ocean life; and the list goes on and on. Everything that is created has a purpose.
To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven.
–Ecclesiastes 3:1
A book, “Amazing Wonders of Creation”, by Joe Crews, explains the complexity of our planet. In this book, the author discusses the complex process necessary to create rain; something we take for granted. The following is derived from Joe’s book:
The United States has three and three-quarter million square miles of land. Now suppose that you had to come up with a way to water this entire area to support vegetation. How would you do it? Where would you get the water? You might say you could get the water from the ocean, but how would you transport all the water consistently over this great distance and spread it out over all the land? Just to water the state of Pennsylvania with one inch of water would require you to transport over 3.2 billion tons of water (768 billion gallons), and you would need to hire 143 million large dump trucks filled to capacity to transport it! What an impossible task! But, let’s see how this is done. To get the water from the ocean efficiently, it needs to be warmed enough to cause the water to evaporate so that water can become lighter than air and easily transported. Water vapor is 900 times lighter than water, and because water vapor is lighter than the atmosphere, this enables water to float up into the sky. This is one of the many purposes of the sun (each day the sun evaporates a trillion tons of water). But now that this water is in the air and above the ocean, how would we move it to the area of land where it is needed? We would need to move the air. We’ve just discovered one of the purposes of the wind. Wind moves the air that is saturated with water to areas that need water. But how would we get all the water back down out of the clouds? Since warmth causes evaporation, cooling causes the opposite. As air cools, it causes water to condensate and form water droplets. We’ve just discovered one of the purposes of condensation. Clouds are a visible sign that water vapor in the air is beginning to condensate. But how do we cool the air down to allow water vapor to condensate? One of the ways to cool the air down quickly is to push colder air up into the atmosphere. We’ve just discovered one of the purposes of the mountains. As colder air moves up over mountains, it causes the formation of clouds. The clouds form quickly from the cooling process; which eventually causes enough condensation that the water droplets become too heavy and they begin to fall; we call this rain. Now consider what would happen if the clouds gave up all the water they contained at one time—it would flood the entire surface of the earth with three feet of water! Therefore, the cooling process must be gradual. For example, if the temperature of the cloud is lowered by 9 degrees, it will drop half its water! So a gradual cooling process allows the rain to come down in gentle to vigorous showers to provide the necessary water needed to revive the earth.
Joe Crews has many other interesting facts and observations in his book. But the above small excerpts bring one undeniable fact to the forefront: Everything that exists today has a purpose.
We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.
–Romans 8:28
Romans 8:28 tells us that as an individual child of God, you were given a great purpose by our Creator, who we call God. I want to stress this to you: God loves you so much that He gave you purpose. Deep down inside of each of us, regardless of who we are or where we live, we have a calling in our heart to know the deep purpose for our life, and it is only through Christ that we find and substantiate this purpose. Let us think for a moment. Maybe we’re skeptical that there is a God, but what if we were to just open ourselves up to consider that God created everything for a great purpose. After God created the Earth, He then stopped and thought about you, a child of His, and He said, “To this child, I give…” and you were given your gift. We must humble ourselves and acknowledge that we are not outside God’s law; the law of purpose which is the foundation of His creations. The purpose God gave to each of us is far more valuable to Him than the sun. We are His most treasured creation.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
–Ephesians 1:11-12
Further, and wonderfully known, what good would it be for a violinist to play a wonderful set of notes that forms a song if nobody were to hear the music? The answer is: It would serve no purpose. In the same way a gifted violinist plays music with the passion and desire for it to be heard by others, God gave us life so that we may experience His creation; and we give purpose to God’s creation. But our purpose goes further than just enjoying what God creates; we are to love God in return. As a cloud returns water back to the earth, we are to return our love that we receive from God back to Him; the true circle of life.
And as a single piece to a large puzzle is unique and valuable on its own, its purpose can only be established when it becomes part of the other pieces. It is only after the piece is interconnected with the others that the purpose for the single piece is established; and the same is with us in the Body of Christ. When we accept Christ, we accept our role and purpose in the eternal plan of creation; and thereby, substantiate ourselves into God’s law of purpose. Our Lord is inviting each of us to be part of Him as a reflection of His love for us. It is through His grace, and our subsequent acceptance of His grace, that God extends to us our ability to rid ourselves of purposeless existence as we become part of His plan through our gifts and His will upon our life. This invitation is extended to each of us because we are created in His image; and it is through our love of Him that we accept His offer. Each of us, individually, must make this decision for ourselves. And once we accept Christ, then our mind is free to serve Him without burden of judgment or fear of death, because we will know in our heart that we belong to Him.
Dear Father God,
I find it is easy to get wrapped-up in my day-to-day life activities and ignore the “big picture.” I find it easy to spend my time trying to exist without actually considering why I exist. I see the expanse of the universe, the stars, the great oceans, the mountains which majestically reach up to the sky, and these things make me feel like an insignificant creature. However, because I have been created in your image, I have been blessed with the greatest gift of all: a purpose, which includes the gift of awareness, the gift to notice your endless creation and to experience your love directly. The mountains, stars, oceans…they cannot know you like I am able to know you. Help me to use my free-will to accept your Son, and to acknowledge that it is only through Christ that I become reborn with a role; a true purpose in your eternal plan of creation.
In Jesus’ name I pray.
Amen.
