Why are you here? One of the big questions everyone comes to grapple with at some point in their life. “A yearning for significance, the pursuit of the meaning of life, is hard-coded into each of us,” Michael Williams wrote.
It is core to human nature to long to identify with something bigger than ourselves that will lay out a clear mission that will guide us, give us a sense of purpose, and result in a life that had enough impact to be remembered.
Why is that? Let’s explore this innate desire and you’ll find that the question about our purpose is answered along the way.
Back to the origin
We long for a greater cause because we were designed to take in something bigger, or rather, Someone. At the beginning of time, the intent of our creation was to worship our Creator, a purpose sin has since twisted and redirected to whatever idol our heart conjures.
We were made to worship, a design we innately know but don’t understand as we devote ourselves to people, things, or ideas. We say we were made for this job or that our purpose is to love this person, resolutions that have some truth, but they’re twisted.
Anything we could love or support in or about this earth is not our primary or ultimate calling but rather a ripple from the reason we’re here. Far too often we stop on one thing or another and do not realize the greater it’s meant to point to.
So what are we stopping short of? What are the trivial things of this earth meant to draw our hearts to? What is our first and primary calling?
#1 — Glorify God
To embrace your purpose, you must embrace your God because humankind was created to worship Him. If you stiff-arm His incomprehensible majesty and the duty that compels us to praise Him, you will forever be chasing wind, vainly searching for something to fill the void only He can.
Everything that happens in life, good and bad, is meant to draw our hearts back to this purpose. Suffering? It’s a life-align moment to get you back to the heart of worship. Happy? It’s a season of refreshment to abide with God on the mountain top.
“God is always seeking you. Every sunset, every clear blue sky, every ocean wave, the starry host of night. He blankets each day with the invitation, ‘I am here.’”
-Louie Giglio
We live under a sky that is repainted every day by the greatest Artist so, as the song “Sun” by Sleeping At Last goes, “That we may fall in love / Every time we open up, our eyes.” Everything we could praise in and of itself is meant to lead us to marvel at our Savior.
#2 — Love other people
Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about discovering who God created you to be. You are an image-bearer. Your job is to live out a picture of what life in heaven will be like. At school, at work, and in your family.
Those places are your mission field for you to go out and raise up a good example, to show that there is another way aside from the brokenness of worldliness. You are to reflect Christ’s light into the darkness of our world.
“You’re not the light lighting the way, you’re a songbird proclaiming the dawn.”
-Nathan Janowski
Your life as a believer should make non-believers question their disbelief in God. You should live in such a way that those who know you but don’t know God will come to know God because they know you (Mattew 5:16).
You are Christ’s representative. We are always giving witness to the reality of Jesus. We are to maintain a good name for Him. Your purpose is to point to Christ. We are cracked jars in which He puts His glory, broken mirrors meant to reflect His light.
“A human being may image well or poorly, but he or she is always—and at all times—a creature made for the purpose of imaging or reflecting God.”
-Michael D. Williams, “First Calling”
This is your purpose. This is the job of the Church. This is the meaning of marriage, to be a testimony of Christ so others will come to know Him (1 Kings 8:43). Will marrying the person you are interested in allow you to better display Christ’s love for the Church?
“Because Eve was made in the image of God and without sin, she did not need Adam’s love because there was nothing wrong with her either. She needed Adam for the same reason Adam needed her— to more efficiently image the One who created her.”
-Rick Thomas, Get Ready
For the life of the world, we are to live out God’s love through our interactions with others so non-believers can see Christ in us.
Going from here
God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. To maintain our sense of purpose, we must abide in Christ.
We cannot imitate God if we do not know Him. We cannot know ourselves if we don’t know Who we were made after.
The strength to follow His commands could never come from us and we will restlessly search for our identity, calling, and purpose until we rest in Him.
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