Pastors Corner: What are you here for?

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

It's an old riddle, this business of living. What are we here for? A British poet called life an incurable disease. Disraeli summed it up, "Youth is a blunder, life is a struggle, and old age a regret." With these answers in our pockets, we go home after a day at work and wonder out loud to our spouses whether it's worth the effort and think seriously about quitting our jobs or taking an early retirement.

I'd like to suggest there is a lot more to life than just our failures and our regrets. There's God of course, the idea of God, even more in serving Him, isn't exactly in overwhelming favor today. There are a whole lot of people, the great majority in fact, who earnestly believe the sole purpose of life is found in their things. To possess them, acquire them, go in debt for them, to feel them or taste them, or savor them, that's what life is all about.

Take for example Mr. and Mrs. Thing. They are a very pleasant and successful couple. At least, that's the verdict of most people who tend to measure success with a "Thing-ometer."

When the "Thing-ometer" is put to work in the life of Mr. and Mrs. Thing, the result is startling. There is Mr. Thing sitting down on a luxurious and very expensive thing, almost hidden by a large number of other things. Things to sit on, things to sit at, things to cook on, things to eat from, all shiny and new. Things, things, things.

Things to clean with and things to wash with and things to clean and things to wash. And things to amuse and things to give pleasure and things to watch and things to play. Things for the short, hot summer and things for the long, cold winter. Things for the big thing in which they live and things for the garden and things for the deck and things for the kitchen and things for the bedroom.

And things on four wheels and things on two wheels and things to put on top of the four wheels and things to pull behind the four wheels and things to add to the interior of the thing on the four wheels. Things, things, things. And in the middle are Mr. and Mrs. Thing, smiling and pleased as punch with things, thinking of more things to add to things. Secure in their castle of things ... .

Well, I just want you to know that your things can't last. They're going to pass. There's going to be an end to them. ... And someday, when you die, they only put one thing in the box. You. 

But our faith gives us a loftier, more satisfying reason to throw back the covers each morning and put our feet on the floor. "We will serve the Lord."

There is no other trip on earth that you would dream to undertake without some knowledge of where you are going and why. It seems to me a good deal of our bewilderment, our feelings of futility, our anxieties are the result of not knowing what we are here for. It's a matter of getting our bearings, our priorities, understanding our purpose, and celebrating our commitment to God. Take your things out of the middle of your life and enthrone your God there, and suddenly life is not just a struggle, a blunder, or a regret. We're not here for ourselves at all. We are here for God, and in His service we find purpose and meaning and satisfaction.

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Pastor Michael O'Hearn

Hi-Line Lutheran Churches