What on earth are we here for?
It’s an important question. Discovering the correct answer to that question is central to creating a life strategy as it gives our life meaning—it gives us a Purpose. Once we understand our purpose, we then can discern the best way to accomplish it.
Using our Life Strategy Project plan or let’s now call it our Life treasure map, we have our Current State which is where we are right now. We discussed in our last “P”, we are where we are in great part because of the cumulative decisions we have made along the way. Where we currently are is not nearly as important as the next step which is to determine our Future State (Where we want to be). Defining our ultimate Future State helps us determine two things in our Life Journey: what’s our desired destination and what do we hope to accomplish? It answers the where are we going and why. Today, we’re addressing the why.
To answer this we need to begin with the end in mind. At some point our life here on earth will end. As we near that destination, how do we live our lives so that we don’t look back and have regret? How do we run the race well? We need to be intentional. We need to live with an embedded purpose, otherwise we’ll just cascade through life and hope it works out. That’s not a good strategy.
Revelation 4:11 states that God created all things for His pleasure. That makes sense. He wasn’t obligated. It wasn’t like He had a divine “To Do” list to fulfill. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and when He had finished, He saw that it was very good. We are created for His pleasure and our mission…our purpose is to glorify God.
The extremely cool thing about being designed for His pleasure is that we perform at our best and we receive our greatest reward when we align with His design. It’s the ultimate win-win! This concept aligns with virtually everything that is created. If you’ve worked on cars or performed “handyman” services around you’re home, you know that when you need to tap or bang on something, almost anything can work as a hammer. However, each tool, be it a wrench, a screwdriver, a ruler, or a saw was designed for a specific purpose and it works best when used according to its design. We humans are created and as such, we have a purpose and design.
God designed us to have a loving relationship with Him. That brings Him pleasure. When we live our lives as He designed us, we receive the greatest possible joy and fulfillment. Any other lifestyle goes against our purpose and the “Manufacturer’s Specs”. The essential ingredient is love–our love for God and His amazing, unfathomable love for us. That’s the great connection! We discussed this loving relationship in our first blog written on Valentine’s Day entitled “The Cross of Love”.
We’ve also discussed previously the concept of Return on Investment and God’s Reward’s program. For our purpose in life to have meaning and be fruitful, we need to consider the extreme options and our Lord gave us that scenario. “What profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? You see, we not only want to live a life without earthly regret, we want to be prosperous in the life to come. This is the true “end in mind” we need to have. It encompasses a Kingdom of God perspective in how we live this earthly life. If we fulfilled every carnal pleasure and whim, yet lost our soul in the process, it becomes a total loss. Therefore pursuing earthly pleasures is not our goal; it’s not our purpose. They are certainly nice to enjoy and great to experience, but it’s not our objective. King Solomon was blessed with the means and opportunity to pursue this and concluded that it is all vanity–striving into the wind. His conclusion, “Fear God and obey His commandments. For this is the duty of man.” (Eccl 12:13). God has a better way!
In God’s Rewards program that we’ve also discussed, we discover that the key metric is love. As we love others, we are blessed and rewarded (both in this lifetime and the next). The apostle Paul tells us that whatever we do great or small, if we don’t do it in love, it profits us not (see 1 Cor 13:1-3). He concluded with, “Do everything in love.” (1 Cor 16:14). Thus, our mission or purpose is to glorify God and we do that by loving Him and loving others.
Think of a fixed isosceles triangle /_\ where God is at the top and you are the left corner and others are the right corner. As you move up the left side of the triangle toward God (love Him), the parallel distance between you and others grow closer (you love others). Conversely, if you love others more (closing the distance between you and them), you move closer to God. It’s a win-win-win situation! We’ll cover this in more detail when we review the “P” of Process or how we travel.
Summing up, our purpose in life is to glorify our heavenly Father and we do that thru love. One of the best verses that encapsulates this idea is Matthew 5:16 where Jesus tells us to “Let your light shine in such a way that people see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” This is where the pen name for my book comes. We are to B. A. Brightlight for the Lord. Clever, huh? Maybe a smidge. The light we shine is our love shown through our good works of helping others and it inspires those who observe it to exclaim, “That’s a God thing!”
That’s the effect we are to have. That’s the Divine Love Triangle in action. As we love others, they are blessed, we are blessed and God is glorified. It’s a win-win-win. You can’t achieve a better Return on Investment than that!
