What’s The Purpose Of Life? Part 2 of 2

In my last article I shared my belief that the first purpose of life is to discover that God loves you, love him back, pass it around, and go home. For many that wasn’t shocking.

Now I’d like to propose the other purpose of life, which is about something you may not have ever considered.

Most people everywhere spend most of their time in the here and now. Juggling family and work. Paying the bills. What’s for supper? All those are important.

Yet we also use our time to prepare for the future. Planting a tree. Getting training or an education to better support ourselves. Sending aside money for retirement.

Let’s take that a step further.

Our experiences in this life prepare us for even more service to God beyond this life.

I’m not going to review all the life experiences you and I have faced, because I don’t need to. You know your own story. Challenges. Struggles. Achievements. Stressors. Disappointments. Setbacks. Victories. Defeats. We go from one to the next. It never seems to stop. But when we show our willingness and determination to keep on keeping on, God will use us for even greater things.

Know that the Lord will be beside you throughout your trek. On your own you might be toast. With his help you’re going to be okay. And where does all this lead?

Jesus taught us…  “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.  So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” [Luke 16:10-11, NIV]

1. We need to do our best to be faithful with this one short lifetime if we want God to give us a forever life with him in Heaven. 2. I am confident that the better we face the opportunities and challenges of this life will impact what God has planned for us on the other side.

When my dad passed, I posted on Facebook: “Life is school. Death is graduation. Do you have a job lined up?”

Forget all those silly cartoons about believers in Heaven sitting on a cloud in a white robe, wings, halo, harp. Pure fiction. Angelic beings have jobs. Human beings will have jobs. I’m not sure what those jobs will be but I am very very curious. 

The first purpose of life is to discover that God loves you, love him back, pass it around, and go home.  The other purpose of life is to use this one short life to prepare for the next, which lasts forever.

We do our duty to God, with his help, to the absolute best of our ability.  We can show him that we do love him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength from now until the end of time and beyond.

There’s value in all our life experiences, both pleasant and awful. How that exactly prepares us for future service cannot be known. I doubt God would have us live this one life, with all its ups and downs, merely to park us on a cloud.

Some see the next life as an opportunity to bask in the glory of God and give him praise forever. Sure. But I have a feeling it will be much more than that.

I’ve mentioned before that the most mysterious verse in all of Scripture is 1 John 3:2:  “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  [NIV]

Humm.  I wonder.

How you live your life here is an investment in your forever.

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Dave Soucie lives, serves and writes in Indianapolis.

Copyright © 2024 by Dave Soucie.  All rights reserved [but permission is granted for non-commercial use only, with proper citation and by informing the author].

What’s The Purpose Of Life? Part 1 of 2

I can hear it now, the outrage of some who are incensed that some unknown random guy would presume to know everyone’s purpose.

Could I suggest that you postpone your rage?

This is not about finding the perfect mate, or the most satisfying career, or how one chooses to spend their free time. Let’s step back from that and look at the whole of life.

I’d like to suggest that there are two universal ways of understanding the purposes of our lives. Both can be embraced by most, regardless of who they are and where or when they lived. They include both this life, and on into the beyond.

The first is this: The purpose of life is to discover that God loves you, love him back, pass it around, and go home.

1 John 4:7-8 teaches us that the number one defining quality of God is love. He loved us so much he was willing to die, and did in order to prove it. [John 3:16-17]

He is not a cruel bully or a mean judge. He is a loving father who wants the best for us. Some have allowed the ugliness of life to taint their perception of him, poisoning their need to know his true character. Others have swallowed the lies told by those who feel threatened by the concept of a higher power who is vastly smarter than humanity.

We love him back by following his example seen in Agape love: seeking someone else’s highest good. Jesus taught that the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength. [Mark 12:29-30]  We show our love for him by following his time-tested guidance for life.

We pass it around by loving [serving] others as much as we love [serve] ourselves [Mark 12:31]. Jesus said this was the second greatest commandment, also summed up in what’s been called the Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated [Matthew 7:12].

So, we appreciate God’s loving care, reflect it back to him, and then show that same kindness to those around us.

What’s left? Go home.

As he opens his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul describes his end of life dilemma. He admits he doesn’t know what he should do.

If he dies, he gets to be with Jesus. If he lives, he gets to keep on serving others. Since he is still capable of service in the name of God, he is willing to postpone Heaven in order to continue to pass the love around [Philippians 1:21-26].

For Christians, I think that’s a great way to approach our life of service. Do what you can as long as you can.

Then there comes a time for all of us when we can no longer be a blessing. For the Christian, it’s okay to go home to our forever family.

No matter who we are, we can be guided by that first purpose of life, discover that God loves you, love him back, pass it around, and go home.

In Part 2 I’ll share my thoughts on the other main purpose of life. It’s about how we’re only getting started.

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Dave Soucie lives, serves and writes in Indianapolis.

Copyright © 2024 by Dave Soucie.  All rights reserved [but permission is granted for non-commercial use only, with proper citation and by informing the author].