Purpose

There’s nothing like a vacation away from home to revitalize you.

It’s so easy to get pulled into life, and it’s difficult to pull yourself out. You turn into something you promised yourself you wouldn’t become; a prisoner of the world.

The world tells us that to be happy you need money. To be successful, all your energy should be put towards that goal. To be deemed beautiful, you have to be skinny, and fit ,and honestly….fake, and so many of us buy into these guidelines. I’m not saying that every one of these are wrong. Sure, to be successful, you have to work hard for it. Wanting to be fit and thin isn’t wrong; however, our lives shouldn’t revolve around these ideas because, honestly, what’s the point?

Living a life that is solely focussed on the worldly things is a life without purpose. You’ll go on living this way, but eventually, just like everyone else, life is going to end. Then what? Will all everyone has to say be, “Well, she was in good shape.” “I think he was happy because he was pretty wealthy…” I don’t know about all of you, but I don’t want that to be all the talk at my end.

I had gotten sucked into some of these world views, and they became an obsession, and let me tell you, it takes the energy out of you, and for what, unfulfillment? A constant void? I started living through the motions because I didn’t have the energy to do anything else. I became a distant. I became fake, slapping on a smile, but I wasn’t really happy. I started to wonder what’s the point? What’s the purpose of my existence?

Then, I went on a family vacation, and God kind of slapped me in the face, and I’m thankful he did, and I’d like to share my revelation.

Satan is a patient predator, and we are his prey. He has all the time in the world, so he waits to pounce. Wanting to have nice things in this world is not bad until it becomes an idol; something in which you center your life around, and this may take awhile. When you hit that point, that’s when it gets messy. Satan uses it and twists it, and can cause you to dig deeper and deeper into a pit until it’s just dark. It’s like when a weed smothers a beautiful flower if you let it. You lose focus on things that are important, and it can cause you to feel alone, unloved, and unimportant. You end up living without any purpose what so ever because you’re relying on fading and fleeting things. It’s like the parable of the wise and foolish builders in Matthew 7:24-27:

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Christ is the rock. He’s the firm foundation, and when we put trust in him, and live a life centered around him, we are living for a purpose. He is eternal; there’s nothing fading or fleeting about him. Why wouldn’t you want to live for something that has no end? Everything else is the sand. It may stand at first, but then comes crashing down. Looks will fade. Money will soon be wasted. So, what’s the purpose in living for things of no eternal value?

On my vacation, Christ suddenly gave me this realization. I had questioned why I’m even here because I had bought into the ideas of the world, but then I saw God’s beautiful creation, and how each thing had a role. I saw all of this, and if he made all of this for me, then there had to be a reason for me being here. I had to reprioritize. What was important and what wasn’t?

Things with eternal value are what we should live for, not things that will die along with us. We are called to live a life for Christ. That’s our purpose, and in this, you’ll find fulfillment. Easier said than done, I know, but I think many of us can vouch for this. We see addicts continually trying to fill a hole with a high, without success. Girls that try to fill the void with “love” from men without any luck. There may be a present feeling of fulfillment, but that feeling fades, and they keep going back to this false filler that can never satisfy. Why? Because it’s something that can only be filled with Christ. These other things aren’t a constant. They can’t be relied upon, but Christ can.

Christ should be number one in our lives, because that is when we truly see what our purpose is. When my time comes, I hope people can say good things about me, and that I lived on fire for Christ, but that’s not really what’s of upmost importance. What I truly hope is that God looks at me when I see him and he says, “…well done, good and faithful servant…(Matthew 25:23).

We are not here by chance, and I’m not sure why anyone would want to believe that we were, and we all have a purpose. It’s just as to whether or not we find it.

I’d like to finish with a promise:

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10), and “It is in Christ Jesus we find out who we are and what we are living for” (Ephesians 1:11).