Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. — Proverbs 19:21
How many people have a purpose? Lots of us have plans. We make retirement plans, contingency plans, emergency plans, investment plans, college plans, wedding plans, travel plans — there is a plan for nearly everything. A plan generally has an objective built into it. But with all of our plans, are we going any place in particular?
I have been to the beach. Back in the '90s, I once spent two or three days on Galveston Island feeding mosquitoes. This confirmed my earlier assessment that the beach is good for about half an hour. Along the Gulf Coast and in Southern California, it is sand and salt water. Up in Rhode Island, it's rocks and salt water. It is beautiful. I have seen it. I am glad I went. I might go back, especially to ride along the roads on the coast, cross the bridges, stop now and then to drink a cup of coffee and look out over the vast expanse of the sea. Some people have a purpose in going to the beach — getting a tan, surfing, swimming, fishing, having a clam-bake, playing volleyball, looking at pretty girls, getting drunk, or all of the above. Since I am not going to be doing any of those things at the beach, I might have a plan to go, but I don't have a purpose. Beyond the half-hour of walking around looking at rocks or starfish, I am bored.
Given that there are many places to go other than the beach, my lack of purpose with regard to it is no a big deal. If, however, I have no purpose in life, I may find myself getting worn down with the drugdery, the repetitiveness, the stresses of life. I make plans for life, but none of my plans work out the way I expect. Even when everything goes the way it is supposed to — according to my plan, I find myself dissatisfied and discontent. Existence, as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, is empty, vain, and pointless. This is a sign that I have missed, ignored, or turned away from — not my purpose but God's purpose for me.
We are free to take a tactical approach to life. I say, for example, that I would like to have a good job, so I study hard in school, learn something useful, develop a skill that might impress an employer. I get more or less the kind of job that I want. I buy a few things that I need or think I need. I find a spouse that seems to suit me. We get a place to live and some more stuff we need or think we need, raise a family, take vacations now and then. One day, someone asks me about my plans, and I say that I am saving up for retirement or to pay for college for the kids. My questioner asks, "And then what?" I reply that there will be recreation and grandkids someday. The questioner asks, "And then what?" To every one of my tactical plans, the same question is raised: And then what?
Without understanding on some level, the beauty and the grace of purpose, we will, in the end, be stumped by life. If it is just procreation, what of those who do not procreate? In fact, we are more than gene-machines. Is there good that can be done, a purpose to be wrung from life that transcends the bars of bone and jars of clay?
There is nothing wrong with having a plan, so long as we are not too invested in it, and we understand going in the limitations of our intentions. A person's plan can never cover the 'why' of life, only the 'how' — and even that can turn unexpectedly. Jesus laid it out for us in the Sermon on the Mount. He commanded us to "take no thought", to never be anxious or overwhelmed by fears of the future, nor are we to spend much time figuring out how to get what we need. The Lord offered us a grand and glorious over-all strategy. We see is as we pray, "Our Father in heaven ... Your kingdom come, Your will be done...". Our purpose is not our own, and it is not of the world: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, ... lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ... For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21).
Let God's purpose write your plans.
7 comments:
When I burrow through the Bible from either end, chances are good I'll poke my head up somewhere in Ecclesiastes. Maybe it's predestined, I don't know; I must need need the message there more than most. Of course, meticulous people always arrive at Psalm 118 but I don't plan that carefully. :-)
I don't think they are meticulous. I think they are obsessive-compulsive. Ecclesiastes works well for me as a center.
"He commanded us to "take no thought", to never be anxious or overwhelmed by fears of the future"
"We see this as we pray, "Our Father in heaven ... Your kingdom come, Your will be done...". Our purpose is not our own, and it is not of the world: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, ... lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ... For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21).
So easy to state. So unambiguous. The trick lies in implementation.
Having achieved most of my life's goals (I had modest goals) and being at the stage where I am just trying to maintain and hold onto what I have (and maybe upgrade here and there), I wouldn't terribly mind knowing what my purpose is.
I'm old enough to have had enough experiences with embracing a new "thing" only to find it becoming old and unsatisfying after awhile.
So I'm pretty much over that.
There are many mornings I wake up and wonder why I am still here when so many others are gone. I like that line in Bob's header that says, "... Life is our school ...".
When have I learned enough? I thought I had it down. But I think of all the people who "hung around" to teach me what it means to be human. Somebody has to do that.
I have a pastor friend who lives in North Texas. He was in his sixties when we went to his church, so he has to be right at 80 now. He no longer pastors a church, but he still goes every week and holds services in a nursing home, visits those folks in the hospital and preaches their funerals.
You can get an idea of your purpose at any given time, but you can only perceive it fully in the end, looking back.
I just hope my purpose isn't this.
If worst comes to worst, the kids can always tell the grandkids, "Whatever you do, you don't want to end up like Poppy."
Amen, brothers.
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