Matthew 25:14-30
Why We Have a Purpose
A friend told me once, “I just wish God would give me his plan for my life. What does God want me to do with my life?”
This lament expresses a longing for purpose, the realization that we are here to do something significant. Three hundred fifty years ago, the French mathematician (and committed Christian) Blaise Pascal wrote, “Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at rest, without passion, without business, without diversion, without study. He then feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his dependence, his weakness, his emptiness. There will immediately arise from the depths of his heart weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation, despair.”[1]
Purpose and Desire
I could not agree more. Purpose reflects a desire for something greater. By definition, a God-inspired desire seeks a bigger life than the one we know now.
Our souls reach for purpose the same way birds reach for the air. When choose to soar, we begin to become the men God has created us to be.
Purpose and Risk
Purpose remains untested before we try it. That means it involves risk.
Matthew 25 contains a parable on our need to be ready when Jesus returns. Being ready means pursuing our purpose. Jesus said,
“For [my return] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.”
--Matthew25:14-15
A talent represented about twenty years’ wages for a laborer, so each man’s responsibility was huge.
The first two servants doubled their money by the time the master returned and received commendations. The third buried his money out of fear. By the end of the parable the master calls him a “wicked and slothful servant” (Matthew 25:26) and sends him to outer darkness (Matthew 25:30). In this context, the servant’s failure to pursue purpose signaled the worst possible verdict. He never belonged to Christ at all.
My Personal Call to Purpose
When I was in college, I decided that I had to discontinue my original course of studies and take up philosophy. It was a risky decision, but it was one that I had to make.
My pastor disagreed. In his eyes, I had entered a no-win situation. A course of study in philosophy would require me to ask questions about everything, including my faith. He saw only failure looming in front of me.
In his mind, that risk was only the beginning of sorrows. Even if I did manage to keep my faith, I would lose touch with “average” people. He told me, “Nobody cares about that stuff,” and insisted that I come to my senses and pursue a “safe” course of studies.
I saw the issue differently. For me, to abandon my course of studies would be a failure to trust God amid risk. In Pascal’s words, the safe course would leave me “at rest, without passion, without business, without diversion, without study.” I had to ignore his advice.
Meeting Risk Head-on
Contrary to my pastor’s assumption, I knew the risks. I was terrified of them, in fact.
With that awareness in mind, I committed myself to three guiding principles in my study. One, determined that I would pursue my calling with prayer in the confidence that the Holy Spirit would guide me into truth.
Two, I would commit to pursuing solid Christian teaching through my church and in my reading.
And three, I would remember the purpose for my pursuit. God had called me to learn on a deep level and teach what I had learned on practical level. That is how God’s people learn to pursue grace.
All matters of faith involve risk. The very essence of faith is to pursue the unseen because we can hold onto the promises of the unseen God.
God sets the task before us. Therefore, when he says the risk is worth taking, it is.
Doug Knox
[1] Blaise Pascal, Pascal’s Pencées , accessed from https://books.google.com/books?id=J50lCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT36&dq=Nothing+is+so+insufferable+to+man+as+to+be+completely+at+rest,+without+passions,+without+business,+without+diversion,+without+study.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAWoVChMIjZuJ5LfHxwIVEHySCh21TQh0#v=onepage&q=Nothing%20is%20so%20insufferable%20to%20man%20as%20to%20be%20completely%20at%20rest%2C%20without%20passions%2C%20without%20business%2C%20without%20diversion%2C%20without%20study.&f=false, April 3, 2015.
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“Barakhi napheshi.et-Adonai”
O my soul, bless the LORD.