Purpose

All these stories have names. And we all could add to the list of tragedies we see around us. The question is: How does God work all these things out for good? Does he…can he work all these things out for good?

What will it all mean at the end of the day?

There are many circumstances and challenges in our lives that we don’t understand. From our perspective and from our pain, they simply do not make sense. Death comes suddenly and unexpectedly. Illness invades a healthy body, and we watch it waste away. An accident results in chronic pain.

John the Baptist made his days count. He lived life “plain and simple”–camel hair clothes and a leather belt; roasted locusts (surely, he didn’t eat them raw) and wild honey to eat. But what impresses me most is that John the Baptist was a man who knew his purpose. He was on earth to prepare the world for Jesus, and he never wavered. He lived with a spiritual focus. Isn’t that the kind of life you want to live?

Why did God put you on this earth? What’s your purpose? Some people live their entire lives trying to figure out what their entire life was supposed to be about. They come to the end wondering where they should have started. It’s not that they didn’t live well. Many have a stack of achievements. They can explain what they did and how they did it; they just can’t explain the “why.”

Have you surrendered your life to God? Have you waived your rights, transferred control, and submitted to him? Have you said, “You are God, and I am not.”? Have you trusted in Jesus alone as the One who makes surrender life-changing? Have you come to grips with your spiritual need?

We often think of our lives in periods of time. There were elementary, middle school, and high school years. We think of our college years and when we first started our careers. We think of life in terms of places we have lived, before and after marriage, before and after kids. There are high times—the birth of children and grandchildren.

Under the umbrella of naturalism is atheism (there is no God), materialism (satisfy yourself with things), and humanism (man is the center of the universe). And, of course, from this mindset flows evolution, abortion, and euthanasia. Man can do whatever man wants to do because we are the ones in charge. 

But Solomon’s journey is not hopeless. His questions and quests drive him to look deeper than the things this world can offer. At the end of his spiritual digging, he hits divine bedrock. God is the foundation of meaning, purpose, and eternal life.