Establishing Your Purpose

from "Thoughts From The Diary of a Desparate Man" by Walter A Henrichsen"

Jan 2

We must all die, we are like water spilt on the ground, which can not be gathered up again".
(2 Samuel 14:14)

If you strip life of all assumptions and presuppositions, and look at it flat on, it would be easy to conclude that it is void of meaning. A man is born, he lives, and he dies. Between his birth and death he is perpetually opposed: nothing comes easily for him. He is not as clever, strong or agile as he would like to be. (this may be one reason people compete with one another. The cannot meet their own expectations, and take solace in their being better than others.) Circumstances such as disease, accidents, and an unpredictable market rob him of his ability to meet his goals completely. People oppose him: they are not nice, and he vacilates between feeling like the victim, and in moments of honesty admiting that he also is not nice to others.

"People oppose him: they are not nice, and he vacilates between feeling like the victim, and in moments of honesty admiting that he also is not nice to others."

In the course of life, he marries and has a family. He covets for his children a life easier than the one he has experienced, but statistically, he has no more than a fifty-percent chance of seeing this happen. His children may die early, contract terrible diseases, become addicted to drugs or alcohol, or have unhappy marriages. His later years confirm his suspicions regarding the futility of life. If he does not die prematurely, he exits life the same way he entered it: in need of others to feed him, change his diapers, and hopefully give him a little love. "When he dies it is as though he had never been."(Somerset Maughm in of Human Bondage) Not only do the following generations forget he existed, the place of his burial ceases to acknowledge that he is there.

You can see why the first job of any religion is to define purpose. Why are you here? The whole of Scripture asserts that this life is the seedtime of eternity. Your only purpose for living this life is to prepare for an eternity with God. "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). God asks that you steward your most precisious resource, time, so that you live wisely in light of eternity.

Joel's comments:

• Our only purpose (commandments) is spelled out by Jesus (Matthew 22:37,38):

  37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'..."

  
  This make sense in light of what Walter was taking about that we are to "learn" how to love and care for each other. And I'd be willing to bet that we have "jobs" in heaven along these lines.
• The concept of doing good here on earth to prepare for your eternity with God is explicitly expressed here with Matthew 6:19-23:
  

  19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,[c] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy,[d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

created 2016-09-17 21:32:02