Another year is gone and another year has come.
Eleven is done and twelve is young.
It’s a birthday for the earth and a time to resolve. But there’s too many candles now, and too many mysteries unsolved. What is life’s purpose and are we really here just to serve us? Or is there something bigger that we’re meant for?
A thousand simple questions come knocking at our complex door. We used to let them all in, and now we’re quick to ask, “Why and what for?” We just don’t feel like letting conviction reach our core or pondering a cruel life anymore.
Is it happiness that we’re supposed to achieve, or is it sadness that we’re supposed leave? I could never feel that out, whether it was better to fake a smile or to hide a pout. Either one seemed to be a worthy endeavor, but they were both too taxing to maintain forever. It was always hard to discern what joy was about, but even harder to voice my concern out loud.
Every “special” hour another TV preacher talks of a higher-power. But those words are so old they’ve completely gone sour. There’s rarely mention of Jesus or a saving grace, everything is about how much cash it’ll take to finish this marathon race. So pick up your phone and dial 1-800 and there’ll be a voice on the other end to collect your numbers. Just three easy payments and you’ll buy our blessing, you don’t have to worry about any spiritual undressing.
If that’s what religion really is then give me nothing of it. I’ll keep my money and you can shut it.
That’s right, this year is a celebration! Give me the liquid and I’ll drink it away, or give me the substance and maybe I can smoke my own praise. The world would feel better if pain were only a phase, but it’s here to stay, so at least let me hide in the haze.
Those are the words I repeated each and every day, until I found out there was a better way. You see another freak told me I had a Savior here to save. I heard him clear, and got ready to cuss him away like the rest. But this one was different when I put his words to the test. He spoke of love and compassion, and he didn’t fit the common “Christian” fashion. This burned me up inside, because when it saw me, love would always run and hide. But there it sat out in the open, ready to pick up the pieces of the broken.
I was too slow to run, too tired to fight, and too ugly to hide. So I finally looked up and said I believed he was right. And do you know what he replied?
He said, “God wants more than your life! He wants you to thrive!”
I didn’t know that meant, all I knew is that I wanted to hear it again. Slowly I started to figure it out and do you know what I found?
We were created to create. Not to consume, but to make. Not to assume, but to contemplate. In a perfect world, we’d be a perfect image of our God. The serpent took his bite of the earth, and now we’re not. But that doesn’t mean our end in this life is to rot. We have a purpose. Defined since the beginning of time, now it just takes a little more focus.
