What's Your Purpose?

Do you ever wonder what your exact purpose is?

Rick Warren has said: “God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.”

Furthermore, Acts 17:28 states, 'For in him we live and move and have our being.'

I think a lot of us get that we are created in God's image for relationship with him, and that relationship with God is the only thing that will ultimately satisfy our souls…to live, move, and have being.

We may recognize who we are supposed to be, but get confused when it comes to what we are supposed to do. While our identity should never be wrapped up in what we do, it is typically displayed through what we do. I recently heard John Maxwell say, “true success is only achieved after one discovers what they are here to do.”

I’ve also heard that the two greatest days of your life are when you are born and when you figure out why.

Consider a hammer. It's designed to hit nails. That's what it was created to do. Now imagine that the hammer never gets used. It just sits in the toolbox. The hammer doesn't care.

But now imagine that same hammer with a soul and a self-consciousness. Days and days go by with him remaining in the toolbox. He feels funny inside, but he's not sure exactly why. Something is missing, but he doesn't know what it is.

Then one day someone pulls him out of the toolbox and uses him to break some branches for the fireplace. The hammer is exhilarated. Being held, being wielded, hitting the branches--the hammer loves it. He discovers that he was created to be used by and for his owner. At the end of the day, though, he is still unfulfilled. Hitting the branches was fun, but it wasn't enough. Something is still missing.

In the days that follow, he's used often. He reshapes a hubcap, blasts through some sheet rock, knocks a table leg back into place. Still, he's left unfulfilled. So he longs for more action. He wants to be used as much as possible to knock things around, to break things, to blast things, to dent things. He figures that he just hasn't had enough of these events to consider himself a successful hammer. He concludes that just having more similar events is the solution to his lack of fulfillment.

Then one day he is used to hit a nail. Suddenly, the lights come on in his hammer soul. He now understands what he was truly created to do. He was meant to hit nails. All the other things he hit pale in comparison. Now he knows what his hammer soul was searching for all along.

I think we are a lot like a hammer. We know that we are to be used, just not sure for what. We submit our lives to our Master desiring to be utilized by Him for an amazing purpose, yet still end up unfulfilled.

I wonder if that’s okay. Could something bigger be going on when it seems like God is using us to just knock things around, break things, and dent things? Perhaps we need to first go through those things before we truly “hit the nail on the head.”

Do you know what your purpose is?
Do you feel pressure to discover your ‘exact’ purpose?

What if our ‘exact’ purpose was to do what we’re doing now the best that we can? Our approach to reshaping hubcaps and knocking table legs back in place can either prepare us for the future, or leave us bitter about our present. I think everything we go through in life is to prepare us for the next life event…whatever that may be.

As for me, I’m going to try and live out 1 Corinthians 15:58
Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Are We Making it Difficult?

“We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

This is what James said in Acts 15 after some Pharisees suggested that the Gentiles should be converted to Judaism before they could come to faith in Jesus Christ. Basically, these religious leaders wanted these new converts to dress like them, have to be circumcised like them, and have to adhere to their calendar and way of doing things before they could receive the free gift of salvation.

Paul, Barnabas, James, and the other apostles and elders were not about to let that happen. Here’s the message they sent to the Gentiles…
“We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said…therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.”

Are we making it difficult for those who are turning to God?

Believe it or not, more and more people are seeking out spirituality and their need for truth, grace, and purpose. People desire these things, but often choose to test things out before fully committing to a source.

2000 years ago the pressure for the Gentiles was to belong to a certain custom.

I wonder if the pressure for people today is not necessarily to belong, but to believe.

Anytime I’m in a car dealership and feel pressured to sign on the dotted line before completely convinced it’s the right car for me, I walk as far away from that place hoping to never return. Similarly, could we be making it difficult for people to turn to God by requiring them to believe it’s for them before they’re truly convinced it is? The reality is that Jesus is the right choice for everyone, however, each individual must first recognize their need for him.

I was talking with someone this past weekend who spent a few years wanting nothing to do with God. He mentioned that his church was making it too difficult for him to pursue a relationship with God. He had a lot of questions and wanted be a part of community that had open dialogue. He went on saying that his church didn’t allow him to ask any questions or doubt anything about the nature and character of God. He didn’t like that every response to his questions was, “you just have to believe that He’s the one for you and you need to put your faith in Him.” He suggested that he didn’t need all of his questions answered, but just would have appreciated the freedom to ask them.

I’m convinced that we’re not asking people to abide to certain customs and laws, but perhaps we are making it difficult by not allowing people to speak freely. I think we can agree that there’s a lot of weird stuff attached to Christianity and the Bible. Maybe we can make it less difficult for those who are turning to God by acknowledging how it all looks – and sounds – to someone from the outside.