It's not surprising to me that one of the areas we struggle to overcome has to do with our purpose in life. Why are we here? What is it we are supposed to be doing?
The
prophet Micah would tell us we are here to do justice, to love kindness, and to
walk humbly with God.
The
psalmist would tell us we are here to praise the Lord – to praise with dancing
and melody and to take pleasure in God’s glory.
Jesus
would say we are to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe
the naked, and help heal the sick and care for the imprisoned.
I
would suggest these are all reasons of why we are here and what we are to be
doing. But, I would also suggest our
question of purpose goes deeper than this.
I
think one of the questions of purpose we are asking is ‘Do I matter? Do I make
a difference?’ Who among us wants to
look back upon decades of living and say to ourselves, I've made no difference
at all.
Paul
helps us to think through this question of purpose in his letter to the
Philippians when he writes, "If then there is any encouragement in
Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy… Do nothing from selfish ambition or
conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own
interests, but to the interests of others."
It is not easy, in all humility, to regard
others as better than yourselves. It is
not easy to set aside your own interests for the interests of others. There
is something innately born within us that calls us to be self-centered and to
place ourselves first. Part of this
begins as a survival instinct.
As
a baby we cry to have our needs met with feeding and changing and burping and
warmth on cold nights. As we grow older
we cry and laugh, and pose and pout to get the attention we want and privileges
we feel we deserve.
As
adults our employers, and sports, television shows, even our education systems
inform us we need to be number one. Be
the best. Be the smartest and most
popular and prettiest and better than everyone else.
We
celebrate and reward the best and the first, while the last and the least are
thought of as… well, as last and least. What begins as a survival instinct
quickly becomes an expression of fallen human nature.
But
consider this. We have been made in the
image of God. Not just some people, and not just believers – we've all been made in the image of God. The most compelling earthly image we have of
God is Jesus Christ.
So
when we ask ourselves the question of purpose, we inevitably ask, are we doing
all we can to be more Christ-like – to be faithful in the image of God.
John
Widtsoe once wrote, “There is a purpose in life – to be
nearer to the likeness of God.”
If
our purpose in life is to be nearer the likeness of God it matters not if we
are school teachers, factory workers, stay at home moms, retired or just
starting in school, whether we are
musicians or police officers or clergy.
In
all that we do, in anything we do, we do it for the glory of God – to be nearer
to God, striving to be more like Christ.
God
has created us uniquely and with great intent and wondrous love. It’s not so much of what we do, but how we
do. Paul says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
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