Day 2: Consulting the Manufacturer

Welcome back to Day 2 of 31 Days of PURPOSE! As the month progresses I promise I'll get to the nuts and bolts of finding our purpose in life. But first hang in there with me as we examine some foundational stuff. You won't want to miss it...

I've always admired my HGTV girlfriends. And I don't mean the ladies that like watching HGTV. I mean the kind of woman who could produce her own HGTV program. While I certainly have an eye for beautiful homes, furnishings and accessories, I would never promote myself as a home decorator. I can't tell you how many times I've been in Pier 1 or Home Goods admiring a chaise or a rug or an accessory, when the inevitable question comes to mind: But where in the world would I put it? And worse yet, I sometimes handle and view an item admirably without having the foggiest idea what it should be used for.

Now if I were to ask a fellow customer, she might be able to offer some wisdom on how to use the product. The store manager could probably shed even more light on my inquiry. However, the person with the most knowledge behind the purpose of the product in question would be the manufacturer. The person that created the item knows exactly why he or she created the product. He knows intimately the purpose of the product.

So why do we human beings search high and low for our purpose? Like vultures circling around a dying possum, we hover around bookstores and libraries in search of the next self-help book. We take DISC and Myers-Briggs personality tests. We scour university websites for a master's or PhD program that would best arm us for our goals and dreams. Anything to reach our potential. Anything to find our purpose.

Education, self-help books, and personality tests are great ways to tap into the treasures to be found inside our hearts and minds. I'm certainly a proponent of each. I've taken the tests. (I'm a Steady.) I've read lots of self-help books. (Hope to write one or two one day.) And I'm a strong proponent of higher education. (I'm currently praying about returning to the classroom myself.)

But if we're going to find our purpose, we're going to have to consult the manufacturer -- God.

Ephesians 2:10 says "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." We are God's "workmanship." He personally crafted us. Psalm 139:13 says "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." If God is the Creator, the Inventor of humankind, we ought to consult Him for our purpose.

We were created to do good works, works that He "prepared in advance for us to do." That means God gave thought to our purpose long before we questioned it. So if we're going to discover our purpose, it would behoove us to stay close to the Creator. He knows us better than our parents, our pastors and our friends. He certainly knows us better than the author whose self-help book sells out at Barnes and Noble. He even knows us better than we know ourselves.

By the way, the word workmanship comes from the Greek word "poiema," the same root for the English word "poem." In Christ, we are God's poem, His masterpiece. As a writer I love this imagery. As God's child, I'm not some mass-produced piece of hardware. And I'm not some cheap romance novel in a turnstile of the grocery store. I am a meticulously crafted work of art. I'm an original piece, one of a kind. I'm extremely valuable and precious to the Artist.

And so are you.

Purposed for Him,

Carla