Purpose in Life

12/19/13              Carlos             22

“What is your purpose in life?” I asked Carlos, a college student working on his computer at McDonalds.  He had told me he is about to graduate from college and begin his career as a teacher. He’d been approached in the past by evangelists and had little time for religion, seeing it as an impractical distraction to doing good in this life, which led to my question about his purpose.  He told me “I don’t want to waste my life.  I want to make as much impact for good as possible in the time I’m here on this earth”.  He believes he will live on after he dies for as long as he is remembered by others.  I commended him for this admirable aspiration, but asked if he knew what the Bible teaches about our purpose.  “A lot of people think religion is just about trying to do enough good in this life to make it to heaven in the next.  I can see why Christianity might seem like just a bunch of rules or obligations and very irrelevant or impractical.  But when I became a Christian at age 17 I found out that because Jesus paid the penalty for my sin, I was already going to heaven through trusting Him.  I didn’t have to earn it; Jesus had done that on the cross.  I could live in a faith relationship with God and was free to live a life of gratitude for what God had done.  I could  show my gratitude through serving others.  It’s why I myself am a teacher; it is one way in which I have the opportunity to glorify God.”  I hope Carlos will find a purpose higher than the good  feeling about oneself that comes with helping others, or his belief that eternal life comes through being remembered for doing good.  He has the opportunity to live for Someone much greater than himself.  We all do!