Purpose

Today I walked into one of those defining moments... a dialogue that has the potential to change me forever. The topic of that conversation was purpose.

What do I mean by purpose? Well, it is not as easily defined as I initially thought. For our purposes we define purpose in the following way:

The act of intending to do something; resolution; determination; aim, outcome, goal.

The question passed around the table was this: does everything have a purpose? Or even harder, do you believe that everything has a purpose? As Christians, we are taught to believe that everything has a purpose in the grand scheme of things. We are taught to believe that all that we do we are to do for the glory of God, but there are even more difficult questions regarding this idea. Do you really believe everything has a purpose? Do you live life as if everything has a purpose?

Today, I do not think most of us believe this. We certainly do not live our lives as if this is true, and we do not communicate this truth to our kids, if we do believe it. Why does this matter?

This matters for many reasons but one of the most important reasons is this: if everything has a purpose then whatever we do, regardless of what we do, also has purpose. This flies right into the face of pragmatism, which is the dirty little lie being sold today to all of us. If what we do matters then we are called into whatever we are doing by a Holy God, and that really matters!

If what we do is a calling then we are called to do more than go through the motions for a paycheck. We are called to do more than the minimum; we are called to do more than our job. If everything has purpose then we are called to communicate that truth to anyone who listens because the world is selling another agenda.

The world states that there is no God, and mankind, well, we are all gods. Oh, the word "god" will not be used, but what else would you call being the top of the food chain and the most evolved specie? Since there is no god we all must live our lives selfishly because once we die that is it. How will anyone come out of that mindset with a sense of purpose? They will not, and that is why those of us who know the truth must communicate this whole idea of purpose. Everything has purpose and will impact us in one of two ways: it will be detriment to us or a betterment, but there is no gray error of neutrality where we can just hang out until life gets better.

Life is not going to get any better or easier or more loving or fairer or kinder because it is decaying. Why? Because true life is only found in one place - Jesus Christ! In Christ one changes forever and understands that all of life has purpose.

My parents sent me outside to play often during my childhood. I went outside and played for hours. Was there a purpose in that? To be totally honest, Mom sent me outside so I would be out of the way so she could clean inside... kind of pointless, or so we thought. It turns out there are studies be conducted right now about unsupervised plan, and how are kids today are in need of more of it. This is just one example of how what we might think is pointless ends up being important.

Everything has a purpose. Those of us who get this idea of purpose are not done. We must convey this to the next generation in order that they do the same, on purpose. Blessings!