What is your purpose in life? « Christian in College

What is your purpose in life?

September 16, 2009 at 6:06 pm | In Bible Thoughts, Evangelism | 10 Comments
Tags: Evangelism, God, gospel, meaning, meaning of life, purpose, witnessing, Worship

A couple things have been making me think about people today and how they see God. One was an email from Pastor Jeff Floyd. It contained an article that talked about how people today have such a high self worth that the gospel the way Christians often present puts people on the defensive. They may like Jesus and his kingdom vision, but the call to change our ways seems too radical. Another teaching moment for me has been the conversation with Shawn over at his blog, Belief in People. Shawn is an atheist who posed the question of why someone would worship God. I think it is a fair question that cannot be understood outside of understanding and receiving the gospel. At the moment you understand your sinfulness, God’s graciousness toward you, and receive the gift of salvation you will instantly come to understand that God is worthy. There are angels who, while in the presence of God ,can do nothing but say “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty.” When we come into the presence of God through our salvation experience, we will see God’s worthiness.

So what can I say to someone who does not yet understand and accept God’s salvation? How can I share the good news of Christ in a way that draws people who don’t yet understand God’s goodness? I believe the answer may lie in purpose. Are you really living?

- Justin

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I believe it is up to each person to discover what they want their life to mean. And there isnt just one meaning. Its a lot of little decisions we make everday.

Comment by Myles — September 16, 2009 #
Heya Justin, thanks for the link back!

For the most part you accurately represented my view about purpose. I don’t believe I have a true purpose, or what I would prefer to say, intrinsic purpose. I don’t think there is any intention or hidden meaning to life or the universe. To me, the universe just “is”. And because it just “is”, I don’t believe my existance has an intrinsic point to it.

But I still believe that having a purpose and fulfiling it can be a great source of happiness and joy. We may also run into a problem with the definitions of joy and happiness when talking about “true joy”. Daniel Gilbert in his book “Stumbling on Happiness”: emotional, moral, and judgemental. I think when you use joy, you’re referring more to moral happiness and to a lesser extent emotional. And when I use joy, I refer more to emotional and less to moral. That’s just me though, in my line of work, affect is sometimes more important than fulfillmment. That said, I disagree that a person can’t experience true joy apart from their true purpose, mostly because I don’t think “true joy” and “true purpose” actually describe anything real.

I think we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well, so here’s a question: What do you think are some of the major barriers for a person like me that prevent me from to accepting the concept that man’s purpose is to worship his creator?

Comment by Shawn — September 16, 2009 #
I’m not gonna be arrogant enough to assume I know you yet on any deep level, but this is from what I can gather. Some of these reasons I’ll give will be practical while others theological.

1) You have tried the Christian religion thing, so you’ve probably been able to get a close look at some of the hypocrisy that is in the church building. On a side note, don’t worry. Those hypocrites will be dealt with.

2) This is a theological issue. By the Christian definition, you have never been born again. The scripture of a faith gets to determine its definition of its followers rather than a sociologist. Here is what the Bible says: (John 17:3) “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Since you would have to admit as an atheist to having not known God or Jesus, you would have to say you did not have eternal life and were thus never truly a “born again” Christian. Since you think you had the “born again” experience, you have the feeling that I tried that and it didn’t work. That is now one of your barriers.

3) Another barrier would be sin, but hear me out. I am not saying this in the sense that I think you want to do such and such particular misdeed. I mean I feel like you want to be in control of your life. You would agree to that, right? Sin is rebelling against the authority of God. Since you don’t have a loving personal relationship with Him, you refuse his authority and this sin seperates you from God.

4) It is in people’s nature to want to confirm to themself what they already believe. I know not all Christians do this, but because of the Great Commission (God’s call for us to get out into the marketplace of ideas and engage people with the gospel) I feel like I need to read and respond to ideas contrary to what I believe. A person like yourself doesn’t have such a commission. I don’t know about yourself, but many atheists submerge themselves in the atheist culture (particularly online). They may feel slightly alone and so, in seeking community, they read a LOT of atheist material. While I’m not intimmidated by any of this writing, anybody could get confused reading this much atheist material. I think this may be another barrier. On a side note, I hope you got good Christian community within a church context. If not, perhaps there is a better church in the area you could go to when you get saved.

5) Stupid or Ignorant Christians – While I think the material read from atheists is wrong in its ultimate conclusion, there is a lot of great and hard thinking mixed in. Then you come up to a Christian who uses an argument that is so weak and not well thought out that it confirms your own nonbelief. There are many Christians who don’t follow the wisdom given in 1 Peter 3:15 which says “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,”

Maybe as I get to know you and people like you, I will discover more barriers. Christ got through the barriers for me and many former nonbelievers. He can for you one day too, and knowing you, I bet he will use a nonhypocritical, solid, born-again, and intelligent Christian in your area.

Comment by Justin — September 17, 2009 #
Hi again Justin,

How nice to hear from you again…how is college treating you? Have the science teachers threatened to toss you out of class yet?

You write:
“Hey, I have a question for you. What is the purpose and meaning of life?”

A big part of my purpose is to love and support my family and friends.

I think my purpose in life is kind of Darwinian…to pass on the knowledge of the past and present and to further the dispersion of the species, and to work to insure the survival of not only my offspring, but all of humanity. Further I think it is incumbent on all of us to work to alleviate pain and suffering in our world, to help those in need, to continually be learning and working to make our world safe for all of us.

We have only this life and we need to make the best possible use of it. We as a people need to learn that life is a fragile and beautiful thing and needs constant reinforcement and support from all of us from the greatest to the most vulnerable. We must learn to treat our world and environment with greater respect and do our part to stop the degradation of our only home in the cosmos.

I can tell you what it is NOT…”Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” Just how egotistical is your God anyway?

If it were all up to Christian and Muslim religion we would be setting around on our butts waiting for Armageddon or some such crud. Research and learning would be a thing of the past…why research anything…God did it. We would enter another dark-age and the spirit of mans intellect, that glow in the dark vastness of the universe, would be extinguished forever…all for nothing…as there is no God.

I truly fear for this world as there are forces afoot conspiring to end civilization as we know it, and there is serious effort and money behind this plot. If religion is allowed to stand we are doomed as a people.

Comment by thewordofme — September 17, 2009 #
Thanks Justin! For the most part, I agree with what you’ve identified (though I may have worded things differently here and there).

Point #4 is the one that I try to work on the most. You’re right, that I don’t have a great comission that tells me to do this. However, all my life, I’ve always want to be “in the right”. But for me, that didn’t mean forcing my opinion on others, but in understanding what people would find objectionaable and preemptively addressing them.

I also don’t need a great commission because I know about groupthink and I know that for people to be effective, they need to surround themselves with people who will disagree with them and call them out. This way, we can constantly refine and improve our positions and have our minds changed when needed.

I have more barriers of course, but you’re pretty spot on with the ones you’ve identified.

Comment by Shawn — September 17, 2009 #
thewordofme said “If it were all up to Christian and Muslim religion we would be setting around on our butts waiting for Armageddon or some such crud. Research and learning would be a thing of the past…why research anything…God did it. We would enter another dark-age and the spirit of mans intellect, that glow in the dark vastness of the universe, would be extinguished forever…all for nothing…as there is no God.

I truly fear for this world as there are forces afoot conspiring to end civilization as we know it, and there is serious effort and money behind this plot. If religion is allowed to stand we are doomed as a people.”

This is not true. First off, Christians are not just sittin around waiting for Jesus’ return. We are clothing the naked, feeding the poor, teaching the illiterate, starting churches that affect change, starting schools and hospitals, and more.

The major branches of science were started by Christians and people who believed in a god. Much of science operates within concepts that were popularized by Christianity. To say Christianity would bring us into an age without science is absurd.

Shawn, I’m not glad that those barriers exist, but I’m glad to know you feel I identified them correctly. I know a lot of people make false assumptions about atheists.

Comment by Justin — September 17, 2009 #
Hi Justin, thanks for your reply.

Yes many of the sciences were created in the 1800’s or earlier when it was dangerous to be an atheist. You could lose your job or your life in some places back then if you confessed to not believe in God. Darwin himself was originally going to study to be a minister in his college days at Cambridge University; which was a religious school at the time.

By Darwin’s time the evidence that the Church and religion was wrong in many, many things was overwhelming and it got to the point that the church couldn’t kill you any more…they could still put you in jail for various “religious crimes”, but it didn’t happen to the upper-crust professors.

The Catholic Church has and is supporting science in a pretty big way, but it stays away from the controversial stuff now.

Mainline Christianity seems to accept most science nowadays, but the evangelical fundamentalists seem to be afraid of what some science is telling them now. They accept some, but reject anything that somehow impinges on their beliefs. They don’t believe the earth is 4.5 billion years old; they still think there was a world-wide flood, there was an Adam and Eve, Tower of Babel scenario, that the Exodus really happened, that the Gospels were written by the named authors, even that Moses wrote the Pentateuch.

People that forget history are doomed to repeat it. Whenever science and religion argue over facts…science wins

You write:
“…To say Christianity would bring us into an age without science is absurd.”

Well your brand of Christianity is already rejecting some parts of science, and when religion ruled in the past it was called the Dark Ages. Serious inquiry stopped and you either toed the line on religion or you were killed…not too far off from what Sarah Palin’s ministers are advocating even now. Right wing religion is pretty scary.

You write:
“This is not true. First off, Christians are not just sittin around waiting for Jesus’ return. We are clothing the naked, feeding the poor, teaching the illiterate, starting churches that affect change, starting schools and hospitals, and more.”

Well good…just as long as you stay out of politics and don’t try to make America a theocracy. Are you still proselytizing those poor that use your schools and hospitals?

Peace
twom

Comment by thewordofme — September 18, 2009 #
twom, you said “Well your brand of Christianity is already rejecting some parts of science”

There is nothing wrong with questioning ideas and concepts. That is a part of science. If we never questioned anything, people would still hold that the world was flat.

Comment by Justin — September 18, 2009 #
Hi Justin,

You write:
“There is nothing wrong with questioning ideas and concepts. That is a part of science.”

Yes, but you are only questioning that science that says you are wrong in your beliefs…nothing else. The questioning of the science behind that which you disbelieve is the duty of the other scientists in the field that ordinarily know better what’s behind it.
You guys have preachers and other non-scientists attacking that which they know nothing about.

You write:
“If we never questioned anything, people would still hold that the world was flat.”

“Yeah science had to fight real hard to make the Christians believe that the world is not flat.

Comment by thewordofme — September 18, 2009 #
There are many scientists who disagree with the ideas you believe in. Just like we discovered the earth was a sphere rather than flat and it didn’t matter what religion you were, it is a fact – there is scientists who disagree with you and their religion is irrelevent.

Comment by Justin — September 18, 2009 #