Our Unhappy Culture

"Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."

~Proverbs 19:21

I know many unhappy people in this world.  You know what nearly all of them have in common?  They put themselves first.  They are focused on their own needs.  Their own desires.  Their own wants.  Their career.  Their reputation.  The respect they feel is due to them. The pay they think they deserve. The car they want. 

The list is endless, and because it is endless, so many people in this world are never content. They never get everything they think they are entitled to, because there is no end to what they want.

Too many of us just don't understand why we're here. We don't understand we are custom built for a specific purpose. And the discontent we have in our lives isn't because we don't have our dream house--it's because we haven't found the thing we were put here to do.  Our true purpose!

God didn't put us here to consume goods and services.  I know, that sounds wrong to our worldly ears, but it's true.  God put us here to serve.  God gifted us in specific ways to serve the Kingdom.  But so many people go through their entire life looking to be served, and never understand our purpose is to be the servant.  That the joy in life comes from contributing.  From giving.  Not from receiving.

But when you live in this world knowing you're part of the Kingdom of God, part of a bigger purpose, it changes everything.  We discover the world is a much bigger place when God is at the center of our universe rather than ourselves.  And when God is laying out the path for our lives, we soon discover possibilities that we never imagined.  

If only we could live our lives from the perspective Paul offered in Galatians 2:20 when he said, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  

~Pastor Todd Creason