Start at the Beginning
January 15, 2004
By Rev.
Todd Crofford
Sr. Pastor
Laurel Wesleyan Church
Do you remember playing “pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey” when you were a child? In
case your childhood memories are fuzzy, let me refresh you. The idea was to get
things as close to right as possible… you had to try to get the tail where the
tail belongs.
The problem was that you had to accomplish this in the dark, because you were
blindfolded, and in addition you were confused because you had been spun around
and were dizzy. Sometimes the question of the meaning of life can leave you
feeling in the dark and uncertain of where to go for the answers. You may feel
like famed psychiatrist Carl Jung who said, “I don’t know the meaning, the
purpose of life, but it looks as if something were meant by it.”
Just like that child’s game, the only way to get things right is to start at the
right place and go the right direction. If you are looking for meaning and
purpose in life, the wrong place to look is inside, and the wrong road to travel
is self-revelation. To find meaning in your existence, you have to get to
something bigger than your intuition, your instincts, or thoughts that begin
within, “I feel like….” or “I think maybe…”
The right starting point begins with God. Looking at the order, complexity, and
beauty of our universe makes clear that everything that is here, including you,
was made by a Creator. And when a creator creates something, he does so for a
purpose. In fact, the Bible says that everything that was made by God was for
his purpose and his pleasure. When you understand that God personally made you
at just this time, in just this place, with the unique characteristics that are
you, you recognize God has a purpose for your existence.
Once you realize God made you, you naturally want to know why he put you here.
The Bible reveals that God’s whole purpose for you was to love you and be with
you. Ephesians chapter 1 says “God chose us to be his very own” and that he
wants to “gather us to be with him forever, through Christ.” In short, he made
you to love you and to be with you forever.
You may wonder, if God so wants a relationship with you and you are only a
person, how do you get that? It is there for you by simply asking. Its sort of
like those Wal-Mart shopping cards; if someone gives it to you, it is not worth
anything until you choose to use it, even though they paid in advance
Jesus paid in advance for your sins, so that all you had to do was ask him. By
asking him for salvation, you are being redeemed through the sacrifice that
Jesus gave for your sins over 2,000 years ago.
If you lately have been spinning your wheels and wondering what life is really
all about, you can find purpose and meaning. Remember that you will not find it
by looking inside, but in looking to a God who made you, loves you, and died
just so you could be with him. My relationship with God and his purposes for me
get me out of the bed every morning. He has just such a purpose-driven life
waiting for you too.
The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of Site One
Networks, Inc, the congregation of
the Laurel Wesleyan Church or the Wesleyan Church International. You may respond
to the author directly by E-mailing laurelwesleyan@siteone.net
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