Purpose of Life and God's Plan

All my life I have heard this question asked. "What is the purpose of life?" When asked that question thirty-eight years ago, my answer was "pleasure". I was an Atheist and believed there was no real meaning to life. Our being here was purely a series of accidental events over a vast continuum of time and our existence amounted to little more than a hiccough, a mere moment in eternity. We came, we saw, we died and then we were nothing but someone else's memory and even that would eventually fade. Therefore, as a beer commercial once touted, we should grab all the gusto we could and have fun. I believed in the mantra of the time, "If it feels good, do it".

And to that end is how I lived. I didn't live to work, I worked to live and my definition of living was wine, women and song. I didn't see the illogic of that saying because I didn't like wine and I didn't grab the gusto of that beer, because I didn't like beer, and I was true to only one woman and I can't carry a tune. My motto then was whiskey, rum, vodka, bourbon and gin, sex-sex-sex and whistling a happy song even if the key shifted often. The real illogic was it didn't bring me joy nor keep the sorrow away. It did not matter how franticly I practiced pleasure in my nights and on my weekends, death, disaster and disease remained a reality.

But thirty-nine years ago all that changed. I got salvation, not in bars or bedrooms, but in the quiet of an evening on my knees. Now, as a Christian, if you ask that question I can tell you with absolute faith what is the purpose of life.  "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." 

That particular quote comes from Mark 12:30, but it is not just a Christian bromide; it is the over riding command of God known to Christian, Jew and Muslim for it first appears in the Books of Moses such as Deuteronomy 6:4, as well as throughout like in Joshua 22:5 - "But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."

Now the cynic will ask does this fidelity to God and following Christ prevent death, disaster and disease? No, of course not, but those things are not from God, but because of human will turned away from God. The troubles of this world are due to sin, not necessarily our own in every case, but both the good and bad among us must share in the consequences. Being Christian does not shield me from moments of sadness or tragedy, but it takes away the constant sorrow and replaces it with continuous joy because my eyes are on Jesus and my heart on God's promises. The endurance to the end of the slings and arrows of a cursed and sinful world is the proof of our love for God and that we can endure it to the end is the proof of his love of us. 

If you think the Christian lives in a La-la Land where birds always sing and lightning never strikes, then you haven't read the Bible. Point me to a faithful follower of God who lived a life of ease never touched by stress or pain. Our life is not never to suffer, but to experience that inner joy of knowing God has us in his hands even when we hurt.

But what of God's plan for us. Isn't that the other thing we often hear, especially if you are a Christian?  God has a purpose and plan for every person. You begin to ask, what is God's purpose and plan for my life? Perhaps, as I once did, you begin to worry that you missed it or you somehow rejected it.

Oh, can you refuse God? The obvious answer is, yes, you do so when you reject Christ, but I believe you can also reject God's call to a purpose in his plan. It will not stop God's plan, don't flatter yourself in thinking that, but it will certainly bring you sorrow. I cite Esther 4:13-14 for my opinion: "Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

And do not worry that you have missed God's purpose and plan for your life somehow. See, here is the problem of why we get to thinking that. We want to be another Moses or Ruth or Mary or Paul or Billy Graham of even another Esther. Wanting to be those things is not God, it is ambition and ego. We do not choose how God uses us, we can only be willing to be used. I believe the reality is that God might be using me in someway right now and I don't even know it. Our purpose is not to obtain glory, but to reflect the glory of God. If you think this must be by some great achievement, effort or leading accomplished by you, then think upon this in John 9:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him." 

But you do have a command to keep you busy in the meantime so you don't fret about how God will use you. You are to tell others the Gospel, and who knows, maybe that is your purpose. 

You also have another command second only to loving God, "The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31.  Do these two things and you'll not have to worry about being used by God and what your purpose is in life.
 

Welcome to the Real World

After getting married, I was free of church. My wife and I didn't attend any church. We were riding high and fine without any help from religion. We both worked for the same big oil company and both made what was considered better than average salaries for our age, our position and our time. We bought a four bedroom Cape Cod house even before the wedding. We had a new car. We had Honeymooned throughout New England and Canada and we went to New York and Virginia the next year. We ate out regularly in fairly expensive restaurants. (Keep in mind that you could buy steak dinners for two with drinks for $12 in those years.) We would rather go off to the shore for the weekend than spend anytime in a church. We started off having it too good, so who needed God.

When things went south, we blamed God.

We were fine with two salaries, but when my wife lost her job it was difficult to meet all the monthly bills so the trips and high end restaurants disappeared from our routine. Then my wife became pregnant.

She was two-thirds through term and home alone. I was at work in Philadelphia, a trip I made every week day by train. We lived halfway between each of our parents, a half hour drive to either one. My wife didn't drive then. She felt she was going into labor and called our doctor.

He told her that was impossible. She asked him to come out, but he refused. He told her he would have the drugstore deliver a prescription to her to ease her pains. It was just as the drug arrived that the baby came. She didn't go to the door and the delivery man left. She delivered a boy, who lived briefly and died.

She placed it in a pan in the bathroom and called me. I left work and caught the next train home. When I got there she was in the bedroom. I asked if she had called the doctor again, but she hadn't. I called him and he came to the house. After he had attended to my wife, I asked what we should do with the baby. "You can toss it in the trashcan for all I care," he answered.

Not exactly great bedside manner.

As my wife recovered from this loss, our financial situation continued to worsen. Her father was giving us about $20 a month to help pay the bills. (Again, $20 was a fair amount back then.) Finally, we decided we need sell the house and engaged a realtor who put the House for Sale sign up by the driveway.

During this period a friend of our's visited with her boyfriend, who was a black man. This visit was observed and it was perceived this couple were house-hunters. Soon we received a warning from the Realtor not to sell to any Negroes, not that she (the Realtor) cared, but some people might make trouble. We told the Realtor we'd sell the house to anyone who wanted to buy it. Next we started getting threats that we better not show it to any niggers if we didn't want all our windows smashed out.

I don't know if anyone would have carried out their threats. The house sold soon after the threats to a white couple. Perhaps the Realtor pushed the sale to get rid of us "nigger-lovers".

We didn't make any money on the sale. It was a down market at the time and we sold for slightly less than we bought. We had no escrow built up. We had no savings. We were naive and didn't think we could rent any where and we moved in with my father-in-law. (My wife's mother died while she was in high school.)

This was not a good arrangement. Things reached a point where we separated. She stayed at her fathers and I moved back with my folks. We both began dating others, although no formal separation was filed or any talk of divorce had happened.

I quit my job at the oil refinery and she got a job at the University of Pennsylvania. I was spending my time writing, although I did take a part time job at a chewing gum maker.

After a few months we went back together, but on the condition we leave her father's. We moved into an apartment in Philadelphia's University City area, a place that had seen better days. It was an interesting place, occupied by college students, drug addicts, prostitutes and radical Black Power groups. The building behind us was a college dorm and all kinds of things were hurled from its windows into the alley behind us. (To the right is a picture of our kitchen there.)

We were living on her wages, which weren't great, and the very few dollars I sometimes got paid for a piece I wrote and sold. Sometimes I would walk along the streets, looking about the trolley stops for dropped change. I usually found a couple dollars each day and that often bought something to eat.

But it was an adventure. We were living the Hippie life. I was actually getting published regularly. In the summer, I got a job with a publisher and we had money now to go to concerts at The Trauma, The Kaleidoscope and the Main Point, even to a Dylan show at Convention Hall. We had the Hippie car, a VW Beetle.

Soon after I got that job my right to vote was challenged and I had to take off from work and go to court. But that is another story.

Our experiences from spoiled newlyweds to Hippie activists was complete. We had "soul", but not The Spirit. One of my campaigns, my cause, was to show up the hypocrisy of ministers and I was back to smugly throwing those challenging questions at pastors again.

Oh, I was so smart when in my twenties. I knew everything then and I knew there was no God.

Here is what I didn't know:

"A man's own folly ruins his life,
yet his heart rages against the LORD." Proverbs 19:3

As a Christian Bees Won't Sting and Colds Won't Catch

I have heard just such nonsense preached. I have heard people told they were suffering because their faith was weak. Who has suffered more than Christ? Was his faith weak?

When you become a Christian the Son shines in you, but the sun shines on you and the rain falls upon you just as it does on the worse terrorists that stalk the earth.  You are just as likely to get your face sunburned and your feet wet as they are. You don't escape earthly suffering by being born again anymore than the criminal who professes sudden Christianity receives a get-out-of-jail-free card. But Christians do receive a get-out-of-Hell card.

If you think Christianity is a hedge against the slings and arrows of this world, then you haven't read your Bible. (You miss a lot of truth if you don't read the Bible.)  Read the stories of all the great names of the Bible, then tell me all those who didn't suffer?

Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.   James 5:10-11

In 1975, when I became a Christian, we had lost 7 children in 14 years of marriage. In late 1977 when my wife became pregnant for the eigthth time it came as a surprise to me. She had claimed her tubes were tied after the last time. She lied. 

This wasn't the biggest shock. It was when her obstetrician refused to take her case and others we consulted would not either. No one wanted this case with her history. They told her it was impossible, she could nevert have a baby. But someone in the church knew a Christian Doctor and he took the case and the church prayed. 

But we'll discuss those details another time. Just let me say our first child to live beyond a brief few moments was born on March 1, 1978. We have two other children  and I'll discuss those circumstances another time as well. All I want to illustrate here is in the face of an impossibility the improbable happened.

And we all lived happily ever after in the enchanted forest of the Spirit where the bees won't sting and you don't catch colds. 

Not exactly.

By mid-1978 the company employing me decided to close shop and move to Chicago. I was asked to go, but did not want to move so far. In November 1978 I was proffered a new job elsewhere, which I took and it was not to be a happy choice. With it we had to move from where we were and the church that had prayed and helped us so much. And then not two years later, this new employer decided to give my job to someone else for reasons having nothing to do with my own success or failure. This was quickly followed by a series of difficult events.

We had our second child, who was not expected to live, but did so after nearly a month in intensive care. My father-in-law had a seizure, died, was brought back to life, but left only a shell on machines, which it fell to us to turn off. Our home flooded and was totally destroyed inside.

Being Christians did not protect us from the type of loss and sufferings that befall all members of mankind. We are talking about faith, a belief in Christ as Savior and a striving to understand and grown in a relationship with God, not in magic. Such tribulations can bring a person to despair, as had been the case a few years earlier. We came to salvation from the depths of depression and hopelessness and our burdens were lightened. So it was when this series of setbacks hit us. If we had not come to this faith, I am not certain we would have survived what we went through between 1975 and 1981.

In an earlier posts I asked if you could reconcile these two verses:

Matt 11:29-30-- Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

Matt 16:24-25 -- Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 

Comparing the difficult experiences of my life before and after being a Christian have taught me what these verses mean. 

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:1

Truth in Advertising

It is a medical insurance commercial. A young boy does a chin up. Then he lowers out sight briefly and when he reappears he is a teenager, then a young man and so on.

O LORD, what is man that you care for him,
the son of man that you think of him?
Man is like a breath;
his days are like a fleeting shadow. Psalm 144:3-4

Another of the series show a little girl at a mirror. She becomes a pre-teen brushing her teeth, and then a girl prepping for the prom. As her mother passes, snatching away the hairbrush from the girl's hand, she is magically turned into a young woman opening the medicine cabinet. When she closes it she is a middle-aged woman.

You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Each man's life is but a breath.

Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:
He bustles about, but only in vain;
he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. Psalm 39:5-6

Another spot ad shows a red-headed little girl being examined by a doctor. As the doctor moves about her, she ages through all life's stages until she's an elderly, but still red-headed, woman.

"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:6-8

The tag line of the insurance company is it is there for all the stages of life. But it illustrates why we need more than insurance for our health. Like the images in the ad, life is fleeting and all too soon we are at that point where no amount of medical insurance can sustain us further.

For who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone? Ecclesiastes 6:12

We are at the point of not needing insurance for our body, but assurance for our soul. We are at the point where we need to look not at a blue cross, but at the empty blood soaked cross.

"But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you." Psalm 39:7

Each time we do a pull up, or open a door or pass through a shadow, we could be cut off from ever moving to a new age like the people in the ad. We may collect on insurance coverage many times, but we will come to that one time when we will want to collect on God's assurance promised by Christ Jesus's sacrifice.

Remember, life is like a falling leaf blown quickly away by the wind.

All Things Work for the Good

Besides those who say, "if only...", there are those who say, "I believe all things work for the good." It is usually used to either placate someone about a bad patch on the road of life or to excuse some foolishness they committed.

"I insulted the boss and he fired me, but I believe all things work for the good, don't you? That's in the Bible, isn't it?"

First of all, I don't believe all things work for the good. Do you think the murder of six million Jews by Hitler's Nazis during World War II worked for the good? Do you think Herod having the Bethlehem boys two years old or under butchered worked for the good? 

I certainly don't believe everything I've done in my life worked for the good. I don't believe everything that has happened to me in life worked for the good either. There are times when I though I was doing good, which really was bad and there were happenings that seemed very bad which did work for good. But not everything worked for the good.

If you are about to use that expression you should stop and examine the situation. You may be excusing misdeeds you need to ask forgiveness for or behavior you need to change. 

When I was a teenager I went to a "Sock Hop" with some buddies. (For those not as ancient as I, a Sock Hop was just a school dance. Since most such dances were held in the school gymnasiums, they didn't want the floor scuffed, so everyone had to remove their shoes.) Late in the evening, they had a Sadie Hawkins. (Again for those not as old as dirt, Sadie Hawkins was a character in a once popular comic strip called L'il Abner. A Sadie Hawkins dance was one in which the girls asked the boys to dance.) A particular girl asked me to dance and I made some excuse and dashed out of the building. Why? Because the girl was considered homely and I didn't want to face the teasing that would come if I danced with her. 

How could my behavior work for the good? I hurt that girl, who was a nice person, simply to avoid the ridicule of guys who would ridicule me for something else anyway. I know she asked me because I was considered a decent guy. So I shot that image, didn't I? And I have carried the guilt of it my whole life. I doubt my turning her down that evening improved her lot in life. So, not all things work for the good.

Yet it says all things work for the good in the Bible, right? 

What it says in the Bible is this: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

It isn't all things that work for good. It is God who works for the good in all things and the good is for those who love him. Yes, something seeming bad can work to the good through the power of God, if you love Him and are called to his purpose. Do not think you can ignore God and expect life to be good.

So instead of blithely assuring yourself that all things work for the good, ask where you stand toward God. Things may be happening in your life that are guiding you to Him. If you come to Him, then he will work all things for your good. If you reject him...well you're on your own.

Avoid the If Bridge

Often I hear people say,  "if only I had done this or that I'd be better off today". I call this taking the if bridge. It's a shaky bridge at best.

A man is traveling to a town. The trail takes him through a forest.  It has been smooth going, but in the middle of the woods he comes to a fork in the path. He isn't sure which is the best way. One path is wider, but the other seems to turn more in the direction the town lies, so he takes it. 

For a while it is pleasant and smooth going, but then the way becomes a bit rough. He comes to places where fallen trees block the trail and he has to climb over them. Beyond this he must ford a low place filled with muddy water. Sloshing on with wet shoes and stained trousers, he fights his way through a mile of overgrowth, which snags in his clothes and scratches his skin. After a few more obstacles, he arrives at the town. He is battered and bruised, tired and tried, scratched and sore. He looks back and says, "if I had only taken the wider path I'd probably gotten here sooner and in better shape."

 Perhaps that is true. But he doesn't really know. Perhaps the other path never came to the town. Perhaps a mile down that path he would have been mauled to death by a bear, or fallen over a cliff or sunk into a pool of quicksand. He only knows one thing if he had went down the other path. It would have been different. Whether it would have been better or worse, he doesn't know.

We make many choices in life. Once made, they are made. We can only guess whether our choice was the best one, because we cannot know what would have been different if we had chosen the other. 

Let me give a personal example. After I graduated from high school, I took a temporary job hanging samples of a new cleaner on doorknobs. This giant company was doing field marketing. A team of full time employees came to an area in these panel trucks. They hired local people to fill out their crew, college students on summer break, people like me, a high school grad looking for a job or others looking for any kind of work. We were driven to various sites and given a case the samples to hand out. After a few weeks, once the area had been covered, the local people were let go and the permanent crew moved on to another county or another state.

In the last week of my employment, the boss of the team called me aside. He told me he liked my work ethic and offered me the chance to join the permanent team. This would have meant I would have had a full time job and have the chance to travel all around the country. Maybe I could have worked my way up in this giant company.

But I was only just 18 years old and at that time you were not legally an adult until you were 21. To take this job, I had to have written permission from my parents. My parents didn't think it was a good idea and so I had to turn down the offer.

I don't know what my life would have been  if I had taken it. What could have happened to a young man traveling about the country with a group of other young men, being away from home for weeks, maybe months, at a time, sleeping in motels and being in different towns and cities all the time?

I have no idea. I know some things that probably wouldn't have happened if I had taken that job.  I would have never met the girl I married, never had the children I had and might have become a totally different person. 

Think about that next time you look back toward the "If Bridge". You don;t know what you would have found on the other side, but think about what you wouldn't have that you do have. You don't know if things would be better or not. Don't waste your time then even thinking, "if only  I..."

This is my advice for life in general, but it has a spiritual side, too.

Matthew 7:13-14  Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

You make choices in life and there are many forks in the road. There is one choice you don't ever want to say, "If only I..." If you think you missed this path, then you go find it again and take it. You may find that path has rough spots, but you need to be on the right path to get to the right destination, not the easy road to nowhere...or worse.

That's Good. No, That's Bad. This is Short.

Here is a short commentary leading into what will be my next post, an essential preparation or groundwork, if you please.

Are you familiar with a joke format called: That's Good, That's Bad or sometimes the reverse, That's Bad, That's Good. If not, here is a short example culled from The Simpsons:

Old man: Take this doll, but beware; it carries a terrible curse. Homer: Ooo, that's bad. Old man: But it comes with a free serving of frozen yogurt! Homer: That's good! Old man: The frozen yogurt is also cursed. Homer: That's bad. Old man: But it comes with your choice of toppings! Homer: That's good! Old man: The toppings contain potassium benzoate...Homer: (confused look) Old man: That's bad. Homer: Can I go now?

Here is a short, more traditional one:

"Did ya hear I got married?"
"Oh, that's good."
"No, that's bad! She's ugly!" 
"Oh, that's bad." 
"No, that's good! She's rich." 
"Oh, that's good!" 
"No, that's bad! She won't give me a cent."
"Oh, that's bad."
"No, that's good! She bought me servants and a big house" 
"Oh, that's good."
"No, that's bad! The house burnt down." 
"Oh, that's bad."
"No, that's good! She was in it."

Probably could do a whole sermon on priorities, relationships and commitments among other issues based on that joke, but we won't. It is just here for illustration. If you chuckled at it... never mind.

Those jokes get me thinking about life and how events really fool us. Something happens that makes us happy and we believe that's good. Something else happens that makes us sad and we believe that's bad. But is that actually how life is. Are good things that happen to us always good and bad things always bad? When we are healthy andprosperous is that always good? And when we suffer sickness, loss or disaster, is that always bad?

Something else to think about before my next posting: What were the best days of your life?

The First Nominee is...

How many times after enjoying an activity have I said that was the best day of my life? Was it? Did I compare it to all the days of my life? What made it the best day? Was it truly the best or just one of the better? Could my whole perception of best and worst be off?

Thinking about the calendar of my existence, what date would I pick as the best?

How about the day I was born? Egotistically speaking that has to rank way up there.

Except I don't remember the day I was born. How could the best day of my life be one of which I have absolutely no recollection? Frankly, I can't recall anything in the first months of my life. I have no internal images of life in my first two homes, of lying in a crib or my first steps, my first words. Those may have been great days for someone, my mother or father, but they left no impression on me.

I had very little to do with it at all. My birth resulted from an act of love between my parents. In the design of God a seed joined an egg and in that instant I was. After that God formed me as I was carried within my mother's womb until I was delivered into the hands of doctors and nurses, who spanked breath into my lungs, cleaned me and cared for me until my parents brought me home.
I remember none of this.

My earliest memory is of fright at the sound of a siren, people scurrying about, shades pulled, being suddenly surrounded in pitch darkness and hushed whispering. That scene comes vividly to mind. Perhaps I wasn't born, but burst to existence in the piercing whine of an air raid siren.

How can I prove otherwise, that siren is the first thing I remember, so maybe I didn't exist before then.

All the evidence I have of my birth is a piece of paper saying so, some photos before and after the fact that may be of me, and the stories of my mother and father and a few other eyewitnesses. I understand human biology and how it works, having had three children of my own, but that doesn't prove I was created the same way. With talk of clones, existing doesn't prove birth. I can only accept I was born in the normal way on faith and trust in those who told me about it.

And I suppose I can eliminate a day I have no memory of as the best day of my life. I will have to nominate some other time, but I thank the Lord for that first day even if it has been disqualified for consideration as my best.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. --Psalm 139: 13-16 NIV