| The physical, chemical, and biological activity
that science observes as life, was created by, and is sustained by, God.
As the humankind, we have deduced that the key question about our
lives is, "what is the purpose of it?" For those of us that have not
conceived of, or adopted, a worldly purpose worthy of our lives, we tend
to assign a transcendent, or spiritual, meaning to our lives. We believe,
or hope, that in some way, even in a way that we cannot discern, that our
lives mean something. This motive controls our religious, or spiritual,
view of the world. If we believe in God, we can recognize that our
desire, for a meaningful life, is actually due to the way we were designed.
The reason we feel a need for purpose in our lives is because we actually
do have a purpose for our lives. Though, like a collective case of
amnesia, we do not innately know our true purpose. Our separation from,
what might be called, our "spiritual knowledge" began at the earliest point
in human history with Adam and Eve. Life is only truly life if it is in accordance with God's purpose; God defines life. Likewise, we cannot create our own eternal meaning for our lives. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 55:8). The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible addresses the meaningless of our lives, as we perceive the world, while acknowledging God's dominion: "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 2:11). "Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit." (Ecclesiastes 2:17). "There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God." (Ecclesiastes 2:24). "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13).God's greatest commandments give us direction and state our purpose; to love God and to love each other. To the extent our minds are able to comprehend things, our purpose can be known by us. Furthermore, in order to make decisions about our lives, it is necessary that we know our purpose, so that we are aware of our options, with their associated requirements, benefits, and consequences. God communicates our purpose to us through His commandments. Although, we may never understand why God has the purposes for us that He has, we can at least understand that He does have a purpose for us. God went through the effort to create this universe as well as the effort of interacting with it. Accordingly, our lives involve effort as well. We are here in His creation not simply to skip to the end of the story and revel in what we were to do, but never actually did. Indeed what would be the purpose? Would reveling in our imaginary accomplishments be living? The trouble with skipping over the work involved in living, is that God Himself could have easily, and would have probably, eliminated ever having made us in the first place. He could simply bask in the infinite and awesome creation that He never made. The purpose of any thing and the thing itself are tied together. When something looses its purpose, it looses its reason to exist; it can be destroyed or lost without regard. Likewise, removing purposeless parts from a purposeful whole, will often increase the effectiveness of that thing in achieving its purpose. John the Baptist affirmed this situation with regards to our lives, "...God will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable." (Luke 3:17). This quote's symbolism includes the idea that some things have a transient purpose, and therefore a transient life. The "chaff" was once a living part of a plant, but once its purpose was accomplished, it became extraneous. The Bible indicates that our mortality is not a part of God's original plan, nor is it part of God's ultimate plan, so it would seem that death, as we know it, is only a part of this, fallen, world. Since death is the significant difference, from God's past and future plans, to the current situation, death has a purpose within this world, and death is a part of this world's purpose. Our typical uneasiness about our mortality raises the question to many of us as to why death exists, and, if death is natural, why are we bothered by it. Humankind has addressed this question in many different ways. The best we can do is to keep our ponderings in order with God's instruction. A conjecture about the purpose of this world would be that it is a second chance afforded by God to all of us. We are called to make a decision as to whether or not we are going to follow God. Since we are born with the decision before us (not already made) we are not fit for Heaven; only those who have definitively committed to God would be appropriate in Heaven. Yet we may not have the ability to make a free choice if we were born into Hell. By God's grace then, He has given us this world where we will taste both good and evil, life and death, without having our willpower being overwhelmed by either. Another possibility is that this world is the natural result of sin entering into God's original design, although, the exact interactions may escape us. As a flat tire is to a fully inflated tire, this world may be to a sinless world. This world retains some of the characteristics of a sinless world, but it also suffers from a greatly reduced effectiveness in fulfilling its purpose. Rather than this world having been specifically designed for some interim purpose, it is simply what a perfect world looks like when damaged by sin. Regardless of the reasons for this world, we do indeed find ourselves here, living, and in search of a purpose. We have our common senses that indicate that we will indeed live out our whole lives here, rather than simply skipping over the difficult parts. We also have a perception that this world is not in balance, not working to perfection, and that we are at dis-ease with the situation. Although this world is often uncomfortable, or even painful, we realize, that the apparent lack of purpose to our existence, is in itself a cause for discomfort. Our recognition and faith in God, though, presents us with our true purpose. |