When ‘WHO’ Defines ‘WHY’

By Not Known

Life without purpose

Around us we see people who live life without purpose. They have no centre to give inner and outer poise and are easily unbalanced. Many of these live for the experience of the moment – with no sense of past or future. It is not surprising that many of these seek escape in drugs or mind numbing states of consciousness.

Life with false purpose

We also see people who live with false purpose. False purpose is often found by taking some good thing in God’s creation and putting it into a higher place than it deserves. This is a form of idolatry. Money, food, bodily pleasure, sex and family can all be occasions of false purpose. The sad thing is that these are all good gifts of God and intended for our pleasure – but each of them can lead us from happiness if we make them our central purpose.

Life with Godly purpose

The Bible puts a different way before us. It is to live with Godly purpose. This means putting God at the centre of all we do. It also means making God’s pleasure the goal of all we do.

Our who defines our way

Think about these words:

…I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives it name (Eph. 3: 14- 15)

And again: God

… gives all men life and breath and everything else in him we live and move and have our being(Acts 17: 24- 25, 28)

These words remind us that we take our human identity from God. In the language of the Bible, he is our maker and we bear his image. Many things can be said about human identity. But, at root, our 'Who‘ is that we are God’s creation.

Our ‘Why‘, in the sense of our true purpose is also bound up with God. We are made to be loved by him and to respond with faith, hope and love. Our true happiness and true purpose lie in being who we are – God’s creation.