When you hear someone talk about their purpose in life, do you think “There’s nothing that special about me. Some people have a purpose and some don’t.” Do you tend to think of yourself as just a Mom or just an employee who brings home a paycheck from a dead-end job or just another person among billions of others? If you do, don’t feel guilty about it, but know that you are WRONG. It is difficult for us to fathom, and I know this sounds slightly cliché, but you are not just one of billions of people on this planet, you are one in a billion. There is simply no other person on this planet that is just like you. You were created, by God, very uniquely, to fulfill certain purposes that He lined out for you before you were even born.
I like this thought from Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life- "You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense." So true. Without knowing God, without having a relationship with Him, without being familiar with His character and His love for people, you will coast along and live to just make it through each day. You may get times of temporary satisfaction in certain things, but nothing real. Nothing lasting. Nothing eternal. We all have an awareness inside of us, whether you know God yet or not, that there’s something bigger, something more than ourselves. We can quiet it with busyness, media, various ambitions, materialism... but every once in a while, certain events occur in our lives and this awareness of something more gets stirred up in our hearts:
When life-altering decisions have to be made.
When something treasured gets taken away from us.
When relationships are torn apart.
When we are at the unexpected funeral of someone precious to us.
Yes, there is something more. Don’t mute it anymore. Listen to it.
God has made us who we are. Intentionally. He designed us just as we are, with all those things we view as faults and all those things we view as strengths.
Psalm 139:13-14,- For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. V16. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
What does it mean to be fearfully and wonderfully made? The complexity of the human body is a testament to its creator. From the way it all works together as a whole for us to be able to live, to the intricate details of the tiniest cell. If He took such care in designing our physical bodies that will eventually end up rotting in the ground, imagine how much more care He took to design our soul and spirit, the part that makes us who we are… the part that will be around for eternity.
Jeremiah 29:11- “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future…”
He has good plans for us. He is not out to get us or cause us to suffer for his entertainment. He wants us to prosper. To do well. To thrive. To live our lives for Him.
Acts 17:26-27- From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
He knew every detail of when and where we would live before we were ever born. He wants us to know Him.
I like to picture the people of the world as a huge multi-billion piece puzzle. It is very colorful and interesting to look at. You are one of those billions of pieces and you have your unique shape and color and also a particular place where you fit in order to make the puzzle complete. You may be a piece that goes in the background of the picture, perhaps a soothing shade of green. Maybe you’re one of the corner pieces, and you help form the frame of the entire puzzle. Or, maybe you have crazy colored stripes and fit properly in the center of the puzzle. Whatever your characteristics are, wherever you fit in the puzzle, it is incomplete without you. Have you ever worked on a puzzle and gotten down to the end and realized a piece is missing? Ughhh! So frustrating! It simply isn’t satisfying to see a void where something should obviously be. God made you on purpose to fulfill a purpose, gave you certain characteristics and gifts, and has a place where only you can fit.
Another thought I want to throw in- don’t compare yourself with others. Don’t base your self-worth on what the world thinks of you. Don’t find your identity in who the world says you are. See yourself as God sees you and find your identity in Christ. If you struggle with insecurity or low self-esteem, I hear Beth Moore’s So Long, Insecurity is a great read and can help in that area.
A thought to wrap this up- There have always been certain aspects of my appearance that I haven’t liked very much. “Peanut” ears and “eagle” eyebrows are a couple of them. (A sarcastic thank you to my siblings for coming up with these names and scarring me forever at a very young age.) When my second baby was born, I saw that he too has my “peanut” ears and “eagle” eyebrows, and I love them. I now look at those features on myself and appreciate them, because they look like my little boy and remind me of him. I can never think of those features in a negative way again. I like to think it is the same way with God. Genesis 1:27 says:
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
He loves us exactly how we are made. The same way I can see reflections of myself in my little boy, God can see reflections of Himself in us. We are His children.
He loves you with an immeasurable love and He did create you for a unique purpose. Oh, and by the way, the purpose is not about you. It’s about God and it is an important part of His much bigger purpose for eternity. I’m already looking forward to writing the next post about ways to figure out what that purpose is! That's where it starts to get really exciting. :)
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