Made For A Purpose
Everyone is searching for purpose in life. When we were five and six years old people would ask us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It doesn’t stop there; in fact, it gets worse near the end of high school!
My daughter is a senior this year and found herself struggling with the answer to that question. So many people around her seemed to know the answer that she felt like something was wrong that she wasn’t one hundred percent sure.
To be honest, at forty-two years of age I am still trying to figure out the answer to that question! Today I am a counselor to teenagers and families who pretends to be a door hardware salesmen by day. I can’t promise you what I will be doing this time next year!
The problem my daughter and millions of people run into is thinking that what you do defines who you are. “What do you want to do” suddenly becomes “who do you want to be?”
When I was a cop I often told rookies: “There are two kinds of cops. There is the ‘man makes the badge’ kind and the ‘badge makes the man kind.’ Be the first one!” In other words, “Know who you are and bring that to the job!”
I have been reminded recently of a truth that I have known since I was a young man. This truth becomes the path of understanding who I am. It is the truth of why I was, and why you were, created.
The simple truth is this: We were created to have a deep, intimate relationship with God.”
When God created man he already had beings that worshipped him, and he had already created beings that had free will. (Satan had already taken one third of the angels and rebelled against him and were cast out of heaven!)
When God created man there was a distinct purpose is setting him in the Garden of Eden where he could eat from any tree in the garden except one. That one tree became the deciding factor between us wanting to be like God, or simply having a relationship with him.
In Genesis it says God showed up in the cool of the evening to walk with Adam and Eve. Think about this for just a minute. Walking with someone is one of the best avenues to develop intimacy. When we walk with someone we share our thoughts and feelings, we have experiences together, and we grow closer and closer after each walk.
Your purpose in life is this simple: To have a relationship with God.
He created each of us uniquely in His image. Some of us like to walk by the river, others like to walk in the woods, and others may like to walk through the city streets. The Lord will walk with you anywhere you want to walk. He enjoys the fact that you want to walk with Him and that you are enjoying part of the creation He made for you to enjoy.
What you do on a daily basis is a choice he leaves to you. There are some unique callings in life, but for the most part the choice is yours! All he wants is for you to know him better. That’s it!
You even get to have freedom in how you spend time with him! We all need to understand His truth, but if you hate reading you can listen to God’s word on CD! Maybe you feel closest to God when you sing- so sing!! If you feel closest to God in nature, take a daily walk on a nature trail, sit in the backyard for a few minutes during your day, or find a quiet room to look out the window and just be still.
You don’t have to worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, because you already are! God gave you a new nature when you accepted Christ. There is no more work to be done, only new things to learn and understand.
As you get to know God better, you will get to know who you are now better! So, get out there and go for a walk!
My daughter is a senior this year and found herself struggling with the answer to that question. So many people around her seemed to know the answer that she felt like something was wrong that she wasn’t one hundred percent sure.
To be honest, at forty-two years of age I am still trying to figure out the answer to that question! Today I am a counselor to teenagers and families who pretends to be a door hardware salesmen by day. I can’t promise you what I will be doing this time next year!
The problem my daughter and millions of people run into is thinking that what you do defines who you are. “What do you want to do” suddenly becomes “who do you want to be?”
When I was a cop I often told rookies: “There are two kinds of cops. There is the ‘man makes the badge’ kind and the ‘badge makes the man kind.’ Be the first one!” In other words, “Know who you are and bring that to the job!”
I have been reminded recently of a truth that I have known since I was a young man. This truth becomes the path of understanding who I am. It is the truth of why I was, and why you were, created.
The simple truth is this: We were created to have a deep, intimate relationship with God.”
When God created man he already had beings that worshipped him, and he had already created beings that had free will. (Satan had already taken one third of the angels and rebelled against him and were cast out of heaven!)
When God created man there was a distinct purpose is setting him in the Garden of Eden where he could eat from any tree in the garden except one. That one tree became the deciding factor between us wanting to be like God, or simply having a relationship with him.
In Genesis it says God showed up in the cool of the evening to walk with Adam and Eve. Think about this for just a minute. Walking with someone is one of the best avenues to develop intimacy. When we walk with someone we share our thoughts and feelings, we have experiences together, and we grow closer and closer after each walk.
Your purpose in life is this simple: To have a relationship with God.
He created each of us uniquely in His image. Some of us like to walk by the river, others like to walk in the woods, and others may like to walk through the city streets. The Lord will walk with you anywhere you want to walk. He enjoys the fact that you want to walk with Him and that you are enjoying part of the creation He made for you to enjoy.
What you do on a daily basis is a choice he leaves to you. There are some unique callings in life, but for the most part the choice is yours! All he wants is for you to know him better. That’s it!
You even get to have freedom in how you spend time with him! We all need to understand His truth, but if you hate reading you can listen to God’s word on CD! Maybe you feel closest to God when you sing- so sing!! If you feel closest to God in nature, take a daily walk on a nature trail, sit in the backyard for a few minutes during your day, or find a quiet room to look out the window and just be still.
You don’t have to worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, because you already are! God gave you a new nature when you accepted Christ. There is no more work to be done, only new things to learn and understand.
As you get to know God better, you will get to know who you are now better! So, get out there and go for a walk!
posted by Johnny Walker at 8:14 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home