"Life's Purpose"
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
— Romans 8:28
A common question posed to philosophers and hermit gurus is, “What is the meaning of life?” It is an important question. Having a sense of life’s proportion is even associated with positive health outcomes. If our vision fails, we can be left feeling listless and lost. Viktor Frankl, author of “Man’s Search for Meaning,” which is based on his three-year imprisonment in Auschwitz during World War II asserts in his book that some forms of neurosis are tied directly to the sufferer’s inability to find meaning and a sense of responsibility in life.
But before one explores life’s meaning, the very definition of life itself must be understood. The common man conflates life with existence. But life is so much more than just having breath and living day-to-day. Here God’s word is most helpful. Jesus Himself says that He came that we might have life. (see John 10:10) John in a later epistle says that “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:12) John deepens the understanding by revealing that we have life through his name (John 20:31) -- by taking upon ourselves the name of Christ.
So, while our existence begins when we are conceived, life begins when we are born again. Buried beneath the wave where our mere existence ends as we come forth new creatures in Christ. Born from above when the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us. We become sons and daughters of the Most High.
Like Viktor Frankl, Paul knew imprisonment and suffering. Paul also knew that his suffering and imprisonment was tied to his calling and purpose which he expressed to the Philippians. “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Phil. 3:8)
Paul was able to weather the storms because winning Christ gave his life meaning and purpose. He knew that God was working all things together for good. He did not have to stand alone. His vocation, though difficult at times, was met with all the powers of heaven.
Like Paul, when God reaches into our existence with the light of the gospel and bids us to express our faith through covenant in its life-giving power, He is also calling us “according to his purpose.” A purpose that works not just for us but through us.
Said another way, when God reaches out and calls someone, this is not simply a synonym for “conversion,” though in some senses and context it involves that too. It is God’s call for a purpose. Most Christians look at Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus as the moment Paul was converted. Paul saw it primarily as the moment when he was sent.
Ever since the Middle Ages, the western church has been fixated on how to get to heaven and avoid hell, and how to be sure that one is on the right path. The Restoration has not been immune to this thinking. Certainly, there is a straight and narrow path that we must walk but if we are fixated solely on our own personal salvation, then we miss the purpose for which we have been called. Nephi appropriately asks, “After ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask, if all is done?” (2 Nephi 13:27) He answers his own question by saying that we must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ exhibiting a love of God and of all men.
God’s loving call of Jesus’ followers was not singularly aimed at helping them to escape this world and go and live with Him somewhere else. The purpose was so that, in rescuing them from sin and death, God would manifest His glory through them. Salvation is not simply God’s gift to. His people, it is God’s gift through His people to the wider world.
More simply said, those that are in Christ have a rich purpose in life, to be the means of bringing God’s rescue operation to all mankind. This is ultimately what it means to love God and love all men and this is beautifully expressed in Alma the son of Alma’s response to his born-again experience. “After wading through much tribulation, repenting nigh unto death, the Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God; My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God.” (Mosiah 11:190-192)
As a result, he and the sons of Mosiah became “instruments in the hands of God, in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer.” (Mosiah 11:206)
So, if you are ever asked or even ponder yourself the meaning of life, know that the creator of the heavens and the earth and all things that in them are not only has called you into the marvelous light of God but has given your life great purpose – to bear witness of that which you know – to bear His image that others might come to know Him too.
I hear my people crying In cot and mine and slum;
No field or mart is silent; No city street is dumb.
I see my people falling In darkness and despair;
Whom shall I send to shatter The fetters which thy bear?
We heed, O Lord, thy summons, And answer, “Here are we!”