I go to Home Depot all the time and look at the tools. I know what some of them do. Most of these tools are a mystery to me. I don't know what they are called and I don't know what they do. I want one anyway.
Every created tool has a purpose. It is hard to imagine a tool which had no purpose. Why would someone create a tool without a purpose? Why would it be called a tool if it didn't have a purpose? Creation has a purpose.
I sometimes look at paintings and wonder what the artist was thinking. Some paintings are beautiful to me. Some are ridiculous. I still think the artist has a purpose even if I don't understand it. Some art is offensive. It is the purpose of that art that offends me the most. Yet, it is still a purpose. Creation has a purpose.
There are only two real possibilities for our lives. We are either created or we are merely the results of random acts. The later is a strange conclusion because our bodies do not have random parts. The body is put together so that each part has a purpose. Why would I assume that a body of purpose was put together without any purpose?
A watch has a purpose. Even the pretty parts have a purpose. They are there to be pretty. The presence of purpose reveals the presence of a creator. It was someone's purpose to make a watch. No one when looking at a watch exclaims how remarkable it is that these parts have formed themselves together to make a watch which accurately records time. In fact, most watches (if not all) have their creators' names placed on the front.
I am sitting on my deck typing this blog. My Jack Russell Terrier, Jackie, is lying under a bench near me. I suspect (though I am unsure because she is a Jack Russell) she has no idea of her purpose. She has been placed in our lives for our enjoyment. We have fed her, taken her to many vets and played with her. She has caused us many days of laughter and some days of rage for what she has done. Overall, as much as it has been her capacity, she has pleased us. We got her for this purpose. It is not creation but it is purposeful.
I don't know that I can measure the difference between a dog and a human. I don't know that I can compare a human to God as I would a dog to a human. Yet, I know that this purposeful universe would would be without any order if purpose did not exist. We all have a purpose.
Still, most people are allowing their lives to be influenced by their circumstances rather than by their purpose. They are like my dog who reacts to the stimuli without any real purpose in her life. These people have purpose but neither know nor do they work toward their purpose. They are born, grow, go to school, get married, have kids, work, retire and die without knowing why they have been placed on the earth. We will never know them because they never knew themselves.
Every person has one general purpose though they are permitted and called to express it in different ways. We were created to give God glory. The very definition of sin reveals our failure. It also reveals our glory. It reveals our purpose.
God created us and stamped His Name on us. He gave us a general and a specific purpose. Some are being artists for His glory while others are being lawyers, teachers or construction workers. Each follows his or her calling to give Him glory. It is both puncticular and continuing. God doesn't seem to measure the glory we give Him by comparison. He praise the one who gives a great deal and have disdain for the widow who gave only two cents. He sees both our physical acts and our hearts at the same time.
Nothing seems to be right when we fail in our purpose. My little dog hangs her head and doesn't like being around me when she has done something she shouldn't. (So, maybe she does understand her purpose afterall.) The universe is out of order when we continue to fail in our purpose. Yet, we have all failed in our purpose at some time.
So, give God glory today. It is what you were created for.
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
(This definition of sin is the most succinct verse which reveals our purpose. It is falling short of His glory that defines sin. Therefore, our purpose must be to give Him glory. Please don't take this as a negative because that is not the intent. It is a challenge to return to our purpose of giving God glory.)
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