Restore Fall Study Lesson 3: Want to Know Your Purpose? Look through God’s Lenses
“What am I doing here?” The thought floats across Sarah’s mind yet again, as she folds yet another load of laundry. Every day feels the same, and she’s not sure of her purpose. She feels like she’s always behind, always running to catch up--but not even sure what the goal is. So she fills her life with busyness, to try to find a purpose. She runs from errand to appointment to soccer game--but she feels like she’s drifting in slow motion. That nagging voice in the back of her mind keeps asking why she’s here or what she’s supposed to be doing.
Maybe you feel like Sarah today. You’re not sure of your purpose--is there a reason why you’re here today? Are you here just to live, work, and then disappear? Is that all there is to your story?
There is more--but we can only understand it through God’s story.
The Right Lenses to See Your Story
Do you remember those red-and-blue glasses you put on to watch 3D movies? If you tried to watch the movie without them, everything would be a jumbled blur of red and blue lines--but with them, everything was clear, crisp, and realer than ever. Seeing through the frames of those lenses allowed us to understand the story being told, and see what we couldn’t before.
God’s story works the same way.
God’s story helps us to reframe, and truly see, our experiences, so we can understand and respond to our past and also live in the present differently.
God’s story starts at the beginning of everything--with creation, a dazzling display of his great power. With a single word, he sent galaxies swirling, and decreed all the laws of nature, from gravity to thermodynamics. He made the expanse of space, the great mountains, the endless oceans--but he made you too. From the very beginning, he saw everything you would do, and everything you would go through. But he still purposefully decided to create you.
Our Purpose: Communion
But why? Why did he make us? So that you might enjoy God and have communion with him. That is our purpose, that is what you are made for. Communion with God simply means how you experience your relationship with God. It involves three aspects: knowing, experiencing, and imaging.
Know: God wants you to have a personal relationship with him, where you deeply know him, and are deeply known by him. It is this knowing and being known that is at the start of eternal life, and what sustains us in our relationship with God. As Tim Keller said, “To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is...like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything.”
Experience: God made us both body and soul--and he wants us to experience him through both. God designed your soul so you can fully experience life and relationships. But more importantly, He made you to experience him with your thoughts, emotions, and desires. He designed you to understand his words, reason like him, and imagine his glory and beauty. God stirs our affections so we may be compelled to live for him.
Image: Just as a mirror reflects the image set before it, so God wants us to reflect him by relating and responding according to his word. God made us in his image, imago dei, as little mirrors that display his love. Sometimes we wrestle with what to do or how to live--but God is the one we can look to, our teacher and our example.
But how do we live out this communion? As we learned last week, sin has twisted our common struggles. How do we reframe the themes that have defined our story?
Though Jesus. He is the reference point through which we understand everything, and he has been since the very beginning.
Enabled to Live Our Purpose Through Jesus’ Love
Jesus’ existence didn’t begin in that manger in Bethlehem. He was there in the beginning, and through him all things were created. Jesus is the one who created everything, and rules over everything--but he’s also the one who loves you, and who died for you.
All things were made through Him, so there is no part that he does not know, and no experience he cannot understand. He is with us, and enables us to live in communion with him. But all things were also made for Jesus. Galaxies and atoms dance for him; skies and pines shout his name. We were made to do the same.
“Galaxies and atoms dance for him; skies and pines shout his name. We were made to do the same.”
So Jesus is our hope. All things are created for him, so living in communion with him is our purpose. He is the one who created all things, so he has the power to help us live in communion with him. And he is the one who holds all things together, from the atoms of the universe to the pieces of our personal worlds. He knows and can handle your situation, whether it is chaotic or achingly mundane. He is our hope, for Jesus is our creator and lord, but also the one who loves us.
The creator of all made himself small and died to take care of our eternal state--will he not then take care of our current state?
Look at Jesus instead of your circumstances. Listen to his wisdom instead of worldly insight, trusting his understanding instead of your own. Live in obedience to his words instead of doing what is right in your own eyes. This is your goal. We can know, experience, and image God through Christ--and his love transforms us to be more like him.
Knowing God enables us to live with him. Experiencing God compels us to live for him. Imaging God results as we live like him. Such a life not only gives us purpose for living, but also gives direction for how we should live. This is what God has designed us for.
This is our purpose. This is what we were made for. This is the only satisfying goal.
Maybe you’re like Sarah today, caught in uncertainty and empty busyness. But you can let your soul rest in the assurance that God has a plan for you. A plan and purpose that you can fulfill just as well in the middle of dirty diapers and little league practices, as on a bright stage. We are called to enjoy and have communion with God in every aspect of life. Let’s find ways to know, experience, and image him, no matter where we are today.
Lord, thank you for everything you have made. The skies and stars declare your name--that you are good, and have made all things. Thank you that even with all your power, you still love us, and your love is more powerful for it. Help us to have communion with you. Draw us close in your love, and let us experience your love in every part of our lives. We want to experience you, no matter where we are right now. You are our purpose, our goal, our prize. Let us experience communion with you. Amen.
