1.17.21

Through the pandemic, some members of our old college Bible study, Scripts & Dips (you can take a guess of how that name came to be – ha, legendary group), started doing a Zoom once a week to stay connected in our faith walk. During one of the discussions we were talking about purpose – and I shared what I believe mine is: to glorify God by loving Him and loving others. Then, one of the guys asked me a simple question, “Why is that your purpose?” And I couldn’t articulate a great answer. I believed my purpose to be true, but didn’t have a great answer as to why.

I went a week or two stumped by this question. It definitely ate at me a little bit. Why? Why is this what I am dedicating my life to? I should know this, right? But then God opened my eyes. I was listening to a Joe Coffey sermon and he shared a story about two friends. They were riding on a public bus together when one of the friends, Joe, fell to the floor and began to have a seizure. The other friend, Thomas, immediately grabbed Joe’s head and held his head in his lap until the seizure passed. One of the bystanders on the bus asked Thomas, “Why are you doing this for this man?” Thomas responded by saying, “This is my friend Joe. We were soldiers together in the Vietnam War and one day I was wounded in combat, and Joe carried me on his shoulders for miles out of the jungle. He saved my life. Years after the war, I found out he had this condition of Epilepsy, so I sold everything I owned and came to live with him and to take care of him…” Then Thomas paused, took a breath while he looked down at Joe, and said to the bystander with conviction, “… because mister, after what he did for me, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him.“

My purpose is to glorify God by loving Him and loving others because God is deserving! He is worthy of being glorified. Ultimately, my purpose is a response of love. We love because God loved us first. When I deserved it the very least, God loved me the very most. When I was dead in sin, shame, and brokenness, Christ died for me and redeemed my heart so I could live life to the full. He chose to love me, the real me, and died on a cross so that I could spend life in Heaven for eternity.

No one, or no thing, has ever loved me like that, so no one, or no thing, is more deserving than God to commit my time on earth to. Lord, give me endurance to live out my life’s purpose and run this race well.