What is your purpose in life? We have lots of Christian glow words to answer that question: to glorify God; to enjoy Him forever; to share His Good News. While those may be true, the dark side to those answers is that to feel like we have purpose, we have to look successful in other people’s eyes. We have to be at our “high water mark” in life.
I love this sign—it indicates that this is potentially a high-water spot, but it will be a complete let down because the water receded. Does that sound like seasons of our lives? We feel like we need to be at our high-water mark to matter in the present. We need to be at the top of our ministry performance as an individual, or as a church—and if we are any less than that, we have failed.
When we talk about our purpose in life, it is far too easy to move into an assessment of how other people view our ministry performance. Did we wow people with the Bible Study that we led? How many people viewed the last sermon? Did anyone mention that they appreciated what I did at church this week?
We might be looking at the wrong signs—or at least looking at them wrongly. (I hope you appreciate the poor use of an adverb to highlight wrongness). A “high water” sign is not meant to let us know that there is something great ahead—it is an indication to have caution traversing the road ahead. Likewise, when we talk about being restored for a purpose, we are not looking to rank our success. Rather than looking for our high water mark of impressing people, our purpose runs much deeper.
If you are searching for that purpose in your life, I want to invite you to take in the 2021 SDB Virtual Conference Week. You can click on this agenda link to discover event details surrounding the theme of “Restored for a Purpose.” You can also go ahead and register for the July 25-31, 2021 virtual event by clicking here: registration. Be sure to register soon!