What On Earth Am I Here For (1): Ordinary Lives

Preached September 9, 2018

For context read Romans 12:1-6 from The Message Bible

 

What on earth am I here for? What is my purpose on this earth? When I look at my everyday, ordinary life – my sleeping, eating, going-to-work, walking-around life – when I take the time to really look at my life, I wonder, “Am I on the right track? Am I fulfilling my God-given purpose on this earth?”

I wish the answer to this question was simple or obvious – but it isn’t. I hope and pray that the intentionality of this 40-day spiritual journey will shed some light on my God-given purpose, and on yours. I hope and pray God will lead us in new directions. At the same time, I believe we will spend our entire lives discerning God’s will for our lives and discovering deeper meaning.

And this isn’t a bad thing! In fact, this is perfectly normal. There’s a reason we call this a spiritual journey. From birth to death we are all seeking God. And along the way life inevitably happens. And each season of life brings with it its own challenges and blessings, struggles and joys. Each season of life gives us the opportunity to follow Jesus in new ways. Not surprisingly, following Jesus will most likely look very different for the 80 year old than it does for the 20 year old or the 50 year old.

Today, as we begin this intentional 40-day spiritual journey, I invite you to reflect on where you are in your walk with God. While this certainly begins with our everyday, ordinary lives, it very quickly moves below the surface, beyond our actions and our doing to our thinking and our being. Before we can ask God what God wants us to do with our lives, we need to understand more deeply how God is already at work in our lives. To this end I want to talk about three defined stages on life’s journey. They are never distinct or clear cut and there is often much overlap. Still, as we age, as we journey with God, we inevitably journey through all three stages. So I invite you to listen for where you are on your journey, and as you listen I encourage you to invite the Holy Spirit to open up doors to deeper reflection and new insights.

Let’s start with those who are young. When we are young we struggle with the question: “Who am I? Who does God want me to be?” Youth and young adulthood is a time of searching and longing: we long for acceptance, we search for a circle of friends, we search for intimacy. We wonder about our calling, we search for the right place to live, we struggle to find financial security, we long for a life-long partner.... In other words, we are searching for something to give substance and meaning to our lives. We want to get our lives together and find stability.

Of course, this youthful restlessness can lead us into dangerous places. There are so many pressures placed on us by our culture! And our need for approval can be all tied up with peer pressure, self-image, finding the right job, and being successful. And the consumerism and materialism of our culture can lead us into tremendous debt. Being young is challenging! At the same time, this youthful energy can lead us to ask deep questions about personal integrity and moral living; we are hungry for peace and justice. And we learn to love deeply. This is a time when we strive for independence, experience deep loneliness, and discover the importance of community and family. And we inevitably realize that there must be more to life than meets the eye.

During this stage of our lives as we struggle to get our lives together, when we ask “What on earth am I here for?” we really are seeking meaning for our everyday, ordinary (or perhaps not so ordinary) lives. We want to know how God is at work in our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, walking-around lives.

As we age and start families and find careers our struggles change. We struggle less with issues of self-worth and more with a sense of inadequacy. The great dreams of our youth haven’t turned out exactly the way we thought they would, and the great energy of our youth has shifted. Consequently, we are more likely to struggle with disappointment, boredom, frustration, and resentment. Rick Warren asks the question, “What drives you?” When he answers by talking about resentment and anger, guilt and fear, I think he is speaking to those of us who have moved beyond that youthful restlessness and now find ourselves wrestling with a different sort of restlessness.

Ronald Rolheiser, a Catholic priest and contemporary spiritual writer, describes this season by writing: “We sense more and more how we have been wounded and how life has not been fair to us. New demons... emerge: bitterness, anger, jealousy, and a sense of having been cheated” (6). At the same time we begin to realize that meaning comes from something greater than ourselves. When we ask “What on earth am I here for?” we really are seeking meaning for our world. As followers of Jesus, we live more for others than ourselves – for our children, for our work, for our church, and for God. I recognize myself in this stage. I’m aware of my anger and frustration – there must be more to life than this! My “What on earth am I here for?” question is all tied up with, How can I give my life away? How, God, will you use me to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world?

Moving on to the third stage, Henri Nouwen suggested that at a certain point in our lives, the real question is no longer: What can I do so that my life makes a contribution? Rather, the question becomes: How can I now live so that my death will be an optimal blessing for my family, my church, and the world? (19) We see this shift in Jesus when he enters Jerusalem on a donkey. The active phase of his ministry gives way to preparation for the cross. Generosity, selflessness, humility and patience, help the seasoned traveler walk in the feet of Jesus and truly give glory to God at the end of life. “What on earth am I here for?” is all tied up with leaving the world a better place than you found it, and asking God just how to do this in today’s world.

What on earth are you here for? As we start this 40-day spiritual journey together, we each come with our own struggles, our own questions, and our own desires. We each come with our own experiences, our own insecurities, and our own success stories. We each come with our own awareness of how God is already at work in our lives. Consequently, the discoveries we make about ourselves and about God over the next 40 days will most likely be slightly different for each one of us.

On the other hand, our scriptures today point to some things that all of our spiritual journeys have in common. First of all, God longs for us to thrive. God longs for us to be like trees planted by the water. Let me re-read this small portion of Jeremiah 17: “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”

This is a beautiful image of discipleship that can speak to each one of us, no matter where we are on our spiritual journey. May you be like a tree planted by water as you discover your purpose on this earth. May you live without fear or anxiety. May you bear much fruit – delicious, life-giving, beautiful fruit.

Secondly, Jesus invites us to remember that we glorify God when we love one another. When Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, God was glorified in him. When we love one another as Jesus loved us, God is glorified in us. May you glorify God in your life – your everyday, ordinary life. May we glorify God through this church and her ministries. May we choose every day the harder path, the path that gives glory to God instead of simply satisfying ourselves.

This leads me to my last point which comes from Romans 12: “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.”

Rick Warren writes, “Real life begins by committing yourself completely to Jesus Christ.” You will be changed from the inside out. Are you ready? Will you take your life and place it before God as an offering? Will you fix your attention on God? Will you offer yourself completely to Jesus Christ? It can all start with a simple prayer: Here I am, Lord; I offer myself to you. Use me so that I might glorify you with my life.

Once we offer ourselves to God, the Holy Spirit will give us the power and insight to fulfill our unique God-given purpose. Once we offer ourselves to God, it is much easier to trust that, like a tree planted by water, Jesus will give us everything we need to live for him. Real life begins when you give your life to Jesus. Are you ready?

Will you join me in singing “Take My Life” on page 399 in the hymnal and up on the screen? As you sing, make this your prayer: