Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Jan/71

Contributor - T. Hogerwaad

Title - To whom and where do I belong? What is the purpose of my life?

Topic - Youth

For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world to give witness to the truth; everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. John 18 : 37

Introduction

A few years ago, when one of our children was still in high school, a girl from a well to do family, one who had everything and thus was envied by many who coveted the same material advantages, asked one of the high school teachers: "Sir, what is the Purpose of my life? What do I live for?" Rightly the teacher did not try to answer that question but referred the girl to her minister (that is, if the family still maintained any relationship to any Church).

The more one observes young people in our days, the more one listens to their talk, the more one tries to understand their cravings and difficulties, the more one is convinced that this question is one that echoes through the whole world of young people today, in Canada, in the U.S.A., in Holland, in England, yes, all over the Western world.. At present we live in a world where all the great problems are interdenominational and international; we have no longer isolated countries, isolated Churches or isolated communities. For better and for worse the questions that move young and old people in other parts of the world move us just as deeply. When one reads about the terrible drug abuse, the undescribable misery in which those find themselves who are hooked on heroin and other hard drugs; when one hears the reports of those who have talked with young people who - fed up with what they call the Establishment - turned to, the darker side of hippie-life, two things seem to emerge clearly as the chief cause of the unhappiness of the young people and their desperate desire to find fulfillment. True, we know and we see that they often seek their fulfillment in the wrong places -and in the wrong ways, where they will never find it. But a doctor before he can help a patient, must first find out what the illness is, before he can describe any cure and we too have 10 listen attentively with love and concern to the utterings of young people to discover what exactly their needs are, their unfulfilled dreams and cravings, their right and wrong expectations from life before we can help them in any way.

A recent fallacy

Nowadays many young people mistakenly think that only they themselves or their age group comrades can find the answers. That is wrong. At all times it has been so that the older ones with their experience of life and knowledge of human nature have been able to help young people find their way in life. Not only because they themselves were young once and still remember what they went through then; not only because they have acquired wisdom during their long journey in life (a wisdom which young people of course had not yet opportunity to acquire) but because this is the very way in which the Lord God wants the relationship between the generations to be. As an old and wise saying has it: "Young men for action, old men for advice." It will not work if it is tried to put this in reverse, that is: Let the older men go on doing the work they have been doing for decades already while the young people decide the course of action!

Young people can acquire knowledge and in our days the opportunities to do just that are greater than ever before. But wisdom is not acquired in youth, but only after a long life of acquiring knowledge, of thinking, of suffering and thus of understanding. True, there are some who grow old without having grown wise. There is truth in the harsh saying: "No fool like an old fool" but we do not speak of those here, just as we do not speak about those young people whose only goals in life are fornication and strong drinks, fast cars and other roads to the selfish, self-destructive existence. We take the young and the old at their best and will try to discover what both groups can mean for each other and - infinitely more important - what both can be for God and His Kingdom.

To whom and where do I belong?

That our youth is in need is due to the fact that we have lost something which never should have been lost. Young people feel that loss keenly and try to make up for it in all sorts of ways, mostly the wrong ones. In many cases the cure is worse than the disease. What is it that we have lost, something of which young people are so painfully aware, without having a clear picture of the situation? How did it happen and how can what is lost be found again? Young people feel lost on two counts. They often are painfully aware of the fact that they do not really belong to anyone, that is: whether they exist or not, whether they are happy or not, nobody cares; consequently they have lost their purpose in life as was plainly and movingly formulated by that high school girl. Therefore what most young people try to find (without in most cases really finding it) is a group where they feel that they belong, where they can form part of the whole, where they are recognized and accepted as persons in their own rights.

In the second place: they are n search of something to live for - something that is worth living for and dying for. If young people have found these two things: an environment where they count, where they are welcome and loved and 'further something to which they can dedicate their lives with joy, then they have found fulfillment and are able to take the blows of life - in exactly the same way as we older ones had to take them and still have to take them. Then they will be able to do just that and all that silly talk about "finding oneself" will quietly disappear. (Where did they get "lost" in this sense in the first place?)

The great discovery to be made in life is this: that the most important thing is that God in Christ has sought and found us! No one, who has been found by God and consequently has found God (never the other way around!) is lost or can feel lost. As Augustine, one of the great men in the ancient Church said it, more than 15 centuries ago, in a prayer: "Thou hast created us unto Thyself 0 Lord and our heart remains uneasy in us till it has found rest in Thee." What Augustine has discovered remains true for all ages, for old ones and young ones alike. To belong to someone, who counts, to one who cares; to have a purpose in life. These are the two main issues for all human beings. Not only in the difficult decade from 14 to 24, the decade of transition, but no less before that time and after that time. Unwanted children at the age of 4 can already feel utterly lonesome and miserable, not belonging to anyone or anywhere, with no purpose in life. And few people of young or middle age realize how utterly lonesome and miserable some old people can be just on these two counts: that no one cares, that they belong to no one and that - their strength being gone - they have lost their usefulness and thus their purpose in life. There are no problems and difficulties which are exclusively limited to the 14-24 age-group; these difficulties also exist for people younger than 14 and far older than 24; it is a fundamental issue of human life in general, and not of a ten years' span of that life only! In the Word of God you can find what you seek in vain elsewhere. When Paul the apostle was on a ship on his way to Rome and was in great danger of his life on account of the rough weather, Paul advised his fellow passengers to remain calm, because God had assured him that not one man of the whole company would lose his life. About God he said two things: "The God to Whom I belong and Whom I serve." Paul was not a young man then, wrestling as youth does nowadays with questions of belonging and of finding a purpose in life. Yet here he gives the final answer to the burning questions of youth: "The God to Whom I belong and Whom I serve.," No loneliness here, no feeling of being lost in an indifferent universe. To belong to the Creator of heaven and earth, more: to be extremely precious in the eyes of God, to belong with body, mind and soul to Jesus Christ, the Son of God and consequently form a part of the great fraternity of believers all over the world, the communion of saints, where in the world can a person, young or old find such a fulfillment of his or her desire "to belong"? -To belong to Christ, with body, mind and soul for time and for all eternity, to be part -of the Christian community of all ages, in eternity and here on earth already, is more than anyone can ask for! That is found here and nowhere else. Only God knows what our deepest needs are; only He can and will fulfill them. But if we do not want Him to fulfill our needs, one thing is sure beyond any doubt, namely that those needs will never be fulfilled. And our own poor substitutes for fulfillment will only destroy us as we see happen around us daily and on an enormous scale.

What is the purpose of my life? What do I live for?

Paul answers that question in the second part of his testimony: not only the God to Whom I belong, but Whom I serve. That we may belong to God is due to His action, His grace; and that grace also expresses itself in the fact that we are called upon and privileged to serve Him, to obey Him. Nothing else can give such purpose to our life as this: to be allowed to serve God in Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit. Some people think that the one and only side of Christian life is the passive side: "To be saved", but it is not. The whole N.T. is there to testify that, after a person has been called by God to accept His grace, to be a child of God, that God's second Gift is just as great, namely: to be privileged to serve God, to partake in His own work; we are grateful to God who allows us to serve Him in obedience. Only those who have understood and gladly accepted this know what the purpose of their life is and they look eagerly forward to eternity where this service of God can be performed perfectly, with unlimited joy, just as the angels do, whose very existence it is to serve God day and night in all eternity.

Christ's purpose of life

In the Gospel according to John we read about the conversation which Pilate, the cynical Roman Governor, had with our Lord. After Pilate, half mockingly, half seriously, had asked: "So, you are a king?" Christ replied: "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, for this I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth; everyone who is of the truth, hears My voice."

It is worthwhile to give full attention to this answer. When you ask an informed Christian why the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, he will answer: "To redeem sinners" and that answer is correct of course.

But have you ever thought that this same fact could also be expressed in the words of Christ: "For this I was born and for this I have come into this world to bear witness to the truth?," Obviously the truth and the bearing of witness to it have more to do with our salvation than is generally realized by Christians! The same Gospel of John conveys to us the words of Christ that it is the Spirit of Truth Who will lead us in the ways of God. We always think that the Gospels speak about love and love only, but not so according to the Word of God. Love and truth can never be put in opposition; if that happens one thing is sure: we are no longer speaking about God's love but about a substitute which has nothing to do with truth, nor with God Who is Truth. So Jesus Christ saw His life and mission. He knew why the Father had sent Him into the world: to testify about God's truth. That was the purpose of His life on earth.

Our own situation

For us too, the question why we were born and why we are here on earth is of prime importance. All other questions dwarf into insignificance compared with the fundamental questions: "What is the purpose of my life? What do I live for?" Calvin expressed himself clearly and beautifully in his Geneva Catechism about this point.

First question: What is the purpose of human life?

Answer: To know God!

Second question: What is man's highest happiness?

Answer: The same!

We were born, we came into this world because God willed it so and not because at the time of our birth the pill had not yet been discovered, because if it had been, perhaps we would not be here at all. Every Christian has to start from God's assurance that God willed his existence. The purpose of this existence is: to know God in Christ. And this purpose of our coming into this world which is, that we might know God - can never be separated from the task which the Lord God has given us: to serve Him in the obedience of faith.

Happiness, or as the Bible prefers to call it: inner peace. fulfillment, joy overflowing is' only and exclusively found in the service of God, loving Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and loving our neighbour for His sake.

Some men and women are called to dedicate their entire life to God and it is nothing else but blasphemy what our Board of Pens-ions wrote some years ago in the booklet "Our Father's business". Speaking about worldly security for ministers the booklet said: "Without this security many dedicated men would turn from the call of Christ to work in other fields. If a man or a woman turns aside from the way he is convinced Christ wants him or her to go, in order to get a higher salary, more leisure, more honour, a bigger house, a more expensive car, he may be -a man dedicated to the American way of life, he certainly and most definitely is NOT a man dedicated in the Biblical sense, not dedicated to Christ. He is simply a rebel against God'S will and what is sin but rebellion against God's will? His disobedience will be punished, as God has clearly told us.

But other men have also their divine calling: God expects a Christian farmer, a Christian doctor, a Christian lawyer to do his work in obedience to God, so that he could not have done it any better had Christ personally given him his work. But next to that, every Christian has to ask himself what he can do for the Church, in God's service. It is very dangerous to say: "Look her--, .-my work takes it out of me so many hours a day, the rest of my time belongs to myself, to my wife and my children, I do not want to be bothered with any extra task.' : Of course, your wife and children have a right on you, a right that has been given to them by God Himself, but just the same, the Lord expects us to put ourselves, Our time, money and talents at His disposal to do His work.

Every Christian - in any stage of his life - has to ask himself: "For what was I born? What is God's purpose with my life? How can I serve my Lord Who died for !,e with the talents He has entrusted to me?"

In God's Church there are many opportunities for service; nothing is in itself unimportant. Every service rendered to the Lord is recognized by Him and will be rewarded beyond any human measure. The only extremely dangerous thing to do is: dodge your responsibility, go your own sweet way, doing "your own (mostly egoistic and sinful) thing", being deaf to the Lord's voice which calls you to His service. No human life will ever come to its own if a person cannot repeat Paul's words: "The God to Whom I belong, Whom I serve."

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