“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we’re so used to them we call them ordinary things.”
― Hans Christian Andersen
Well said, Hans.
I’ve found the secret: train your mind to see even the most mundane things for what they are – miraculous works of God.
From the tiniest being in existence to the vast splendor of a starry night, it’s all meant to show the glory and wonder of our loving Creator.
What’s your purpose in life?
We have a function to perform and a part to play, each one of us individually and all of us together as God’s people, in God’s Grand Plan.
God’s desire is to dwell together with his children forever in His perfect creation.
Our job in that relationship is to love and glorify our Heavenly Father and to take care of and add value to the creation He has given us.
The original creation and state of mankind was in perfect harmony and fellowship with the Creator and all was well with the universe.
Then disobedience, rebellion, and sin cut mankind (Adam and Eve) off from their relationship with God.
Adam and Eve hid from God in shame. God’s perfect garden of delight was ruined, brought forth thorns and weeds, and was no longer the joyous place for Adam and Eve to tend and enjoy.
Then, after the fall and ruin, the whole purpose and plan of God is to restore that original relationship with His people and redeem the creation from the wreck of death and decay brought about by the rebellion.
The way he has done and is doing that is through His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, who through his love and obedience has made it possible for us to once again live God’s original purpose.
What is our part in all of this today? Where do you fit in?
Let’s consider this idea: Our purpose is to help God in bringing about the redemption of His people and the final restoration of His creation.
Let me say that again with a slight variation: YOUR purpose is to help God in bringing about the redemption of His people and the final restoration of His creation.
So, we can either believe we are just tiny specks of dust with no purpose or meaning floating around aimlessly in a cold and dark universe – or we can believe that we are actually workers together with the Creator of the universe to accomplish a Grand Plan with an everlasting purpose.
I choose the latter. The challenge is to understand and believe it to the point of action. How do we do that? We’ll dig deeper in the next post.
In an excerpt from The Crown, Season 3 Episode 7 (“Moondust”) – a monologue delivered in the show by Prince Phillip the during his moment of mid-life crisis, speaking to a gathering of priests at St. George’s House, the writer and actor capture the essence of a meaningless existence as opposed to the wonder and ecstasy of knowing God.
“My mother died recently. She saw something was amiss. She saw that something was missing in her youngest child, her only son. Faith. ‘How’s your faith’, she asked me.
I am here to admit to you that I’ve lost it. And without it, what is there? The loneliness and emptiness and anticlimax of going all the way to the moon and finding nothing but haunting desolation, ghostly silence, gloom. That is what faithlessness is.
As opposed to finding wonder, ecstasy, the miracle of divine creation, God’s design and purpose.”
Train yourself to recognize and appreciate the every-day miracles, especially the You Miracle.
You are a miracle, made in God’s image. Act like it.
“Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true?
It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else.
Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.”
C.S. Lewis
Dear Anti-natalists and Nihilists,
In my last letter to y’all I only made it as far as addressing the anti-natalists and didn’t get around to those of the nihilist persuasion. So, I’ll dedicate this letter to those of you who believe that life is meaningless and who reject all religious and moral principles – which is the definition of a nihilist.
You may be right in thinking that your life is meaningless, but that doesn’t mean that all life is meaningless. Right?
And if your life is meaningless and without purpose, well, read on.
Now to the bigger, much bigger, problem: To actually believe that the universe is empty of meaning and purpose is to deny the plain evidence directly in front of you every day.
Is there a purpose to the rain that falls? Of course there is. How about the sun that shines or the wind that blows? Of course, and I don’t need to explain or list the reasons and purposes for those things, everyone already knows and understands them.
Is there a reason behind the way our physical bodies are made to function or the way the planets and moons in our solar system move in predictable cycles? Undeniably and absolutely.
So how can you believe that there is no reason or purpose in our existence?
I’m reminded of this verse from the Book of Romans:
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”
Everything has purpose, even you. If you don’t know, believe in, or understand your purpose, then you haven’t looked hard enough or asked the right questions.
Seek, and you’ll find. Knock, and the door will open.
Until my next letter.
Sincerely,
Your fellow death row occupant