Sunday, February 27, 2011
Episode 3: What is your purpose in life? What will your "dash" look like?
The Assignment this week is to prayerfully answer the question, "What is your purpose in life?" Certainly you can lead the answer with the Westminster Confession's First Section, "the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." But I am looking for how that looks concretely IN YOUR LIFE. What (or who) are you about? How does that purpose look in your everyday life? What will you do with your "dash?" What I mean is, what will you do with the time from your birth date to your death date that will show your purpose?
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"The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever."
ReplyDeleteBut what does that mean, and how does in play out in day to day living, for the rest of my life?
The answer is suprisingly simple. I am to do everything for Christ. In every aspect of my life, every sucess and failure, I must give the glory to God. Here in the Church universal, we are the body of Christ, formed from a collection of people, each with our own unique jobs and abilities. We all strive toward the kingdom, but do so in different ways, many of which are not even readily visible. God has a plan for me, and that is something I must accept all the time, and do my best to further his work in the life he has given me. I feel, at this, the beginning of my dash, that God has called me to make his name great through a study of the natural world, and wondering at His creation. In everything I do, every discovery I make, I will point to Christ.
I confess that this is the point of view of a growing man, not fully matured in the faith, and so my dash will very likely change as I grow older, for no man truly knows his calling until he is called, only God does. But I will trust Him to show me the way, the straight and narrow, and I will do my best to climb the mountain that rises from the valley where I now stand. It is only when I reach the summit that I will truly know what God has in store for me.
-Derek F.
"The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
ReplyDeleteThis looks different in each person's life because God has granted each of us unique abilities and purposes. But even though we have unique callings, all of us should be striving to glorify God and enjoy Him.
At this point, I am not sure what exactly are my unique abilities and what I will end up doing for the rest of my life. I do have the feeling that I have the ability to relate to people and their needs and that maybe pursuing the career of a physical therapist might be in my future. But right now in my high school career, my first priority is God and my relationship with Him, pointing my friends and loved ones towards Christ and trying to be the best representative of Christ I can be.
So even though my future is uncertain, God has the blue print for the rest of my life and I just have to follow it.
I believe that my purpose in life is to Glory God and Enjoy Him Forever.
ReplyDeleteBut acting that out is a whole other thing. Over the years my purpose has changed by what comes up in my life... But recently, I have been showed by God to not only look at my past and see how I have been hurt by others and hurt others, but I see that I have to show others out there that I will listen to them and I can help them through whatever problems they may be encountering.
I believe the teaching of good manners, personality, and attitudes starts at a young age. I believe that God has called me to be a teacher, and my liking of teaching different parts of it, I think that he wants me to be a Family and Consumer Science Teacher. With this I can help teenagers to cook for themselves (independence) and others, help them also learn about Children and how to raise them properly and how they develop, and also making clothes (sewing), which may come in handy when one has to fix something.
God is always showing me the things I need to change in my life in order to be a better example in the world. Also, he is showing me where my boundaries are and how I need to expand on them in a good way to reach out...
God has given me the traits of Listener, Hard worker, Trustworthy, Caring, Loving, and more that I need to be continually showing others what I have and what they are missing out on having someone in their life who can change them for the better.
God's plan is the ultimate plan. I know that I can not mess with his plan, but be patient to whatever may come along next...
My purpose in life is to love God (Matthew 22:34-40) and to love others (Matthew 28:18-20). How I go about doing that comes from a place of knowing I am a sinner, redeemed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and called to love and serve God with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. That is my basis for everything.
ReplyDeleteFrom there, my purpose in life is to be a joy and grace-filled follower of Jesus Christ. I get to spend my life growing in relationship with Him, glorifying Him and/by enjoying Him forever. I get to spend time with him personally each day, familially through Kathee, Gideon, and Hope, corporately through the body of Christ, and in the world- as a Christian called to engage and transform culture through the power of the Holy Spirit.
From there, I have been called, and joined in covenant, to my wife Kathee. My purpose in that covenant is to love Kathee, serve Kathee, and sacrifice for her as she is a daughter of the King, entrusted to me for this momentary marriage, in order that when she return to the Kingdom, that she be more like Christ, washed in the Word, and pure and spotless before Christ (meaning, I haven't dirtied her up by my sin, etc, etc, etc). We are called to love each other and spur one another on to sanctification as we spend our lives (until death do one or both of us part) living and loving in Christ.
I have also been entrusted with Gideon and Hope (and God-willing, more yet) to father and pastor them in the fear of the Lord. In Deuteronomy 6, I have been given the task of teaching God's word "diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise,"... and following. My responsibility is not to make them successful, or educated (in the worldly sense), or anything comforming to this world. Rather, my job is to point, lead, model, and walk with my children to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, and a life-long maturing faith in Him.
My next responsibility is to serve Christ through His body, the church. Specifically, I am called to help shepherd the flock of Christ, focusing mainly on the junior and senior high students. I am to help initiate and cultivate faith in Jesus Christ through the power and working of the Holy Spirit. My ministry is to clearly preach the Christ, calling teens to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, and give opportunities for them to grow deeply in Christ.
And lastly, but not least, is my call to love the lost. As they are sheep without a shepherd, I get to life my life and speak the good news of Jesus Christ to those who are perishing. As everyone without Christ is perishing, I get the awesome privilege of sharing the Good News with anyone, becoming all things to all people so as to win some for Christ.
And that, in a nutshell, is my purpose in life. Dig it!
My purpose in life is to make God look good. I want people to look at me and be impressed at what God has done in me and for me. I want people to see that I enjoy God and I enjoy being a believer in Jesus Christ.
ReplyDeleteRight now that is not a complicated purpose. I spend time with God everyday so I can get to know Him better. I love and serve my husband so our relationship is made stronger and he is encouraged. I love and disciple my two children so they will understand God's love and they can grow into the people God has called them to be. I reach out to my friends so they can experience the love and care God has for them through me. I spend time and energy in the church so that those in the church are strengthened and those outside are interested. And I govern my words and actions in the general public carefully so that impressions of me by strangers are favorable and honoring to God.
I'm sure I'll think of more, but that's a good start. Until we meet again...
Thinking of my purpose and the "dash" in my life challenged me a lot.
ReplyDeleteI am blessed having the opportunity to experience God's presence in my daily life through my friends and family in the States.
Being in the US changed my view of life a lot. Back in Germany I didn't talk about my life being a follower of Christ. Most of my friends don't believe in God and Jesus, so talking about Christ did not change anything in my friends' lives. Their priority was getting as much knowledge as possible, getting the best education and eventually getting the best paid job. That is their dash, basically. But I don't agree with that.
I want my dash to look 'Go(o)d'. I want to improve sharing the Gospel and my faith in God with other people because I think this is the gift God gave to me.
After finishing high school I want to go to college and eventually travel the world. I want to find God's work in every point of my life in different regions of the world. And then sharing the my belief to every person who is struggling in their life without God.
I want to be remembered as the kind of person who was always content living in Christ, no matter whether the times were good or bad.