Searching for Purpose
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23,24
Are you searching for purpose? Life seems directionless. You feel as though you aren’t making a difference. You wonder what the meaning of life is.
Part of our search for purpose is a search for something beyond the ordinary. We want a purpose that sets us apart from others. Sometimes, this is tinged with sinful pride that wants others to notice us and give us glory.
The passage from Colossians 3 comes at the end of a short list of encouragements Paul wrote to members of Christian households. Wives, husbands, children, parents. Slaves, too, since they were a part of households at the time.
Is there anything more ordinary than being someone’s child? Or being married? Or being a parent? If indeed we are searching for a purpose just to bring ourselves honor and glory, we’re not going to find it in these roles. Often, we won’t receive honor or glory even from the people we’re serving, as wife to husband or husband to wife, as children to parents or parents to children. Every parent knows what it’s like to put a meal they worked hard on on the table only for their child to push it away.
But Paul says that when you fulfill your role—your purpose—as a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, it’s not just your family that you’re serving. The same could be said in your role as an employer or employee. You’re not just serving your boss, your colleagues, or your customers. “It is the Lord Jesus you are serving.”
Doesn’t that change things? You may not always want to serve the people in your house or at work. But because Jesus has redeemed you, has made you God’s child, has promised you the reward of heaven he won, you do want to serve Jesus. And Jesus tells you, “This is how you serve me.”
What an encouragement to serve! See your service to your husband or wife as service to Jesus. Your service to your son or daughter as service to Jesus. Your service to your mom or dad. Your service to your boss or employees. This is service to Jesus, and it is service that he loves, honors, and appreciates.
Do these purposes seem unique? Maybe not. Many are parents, children, and spouses. It is not the role itself that’s unique. Instead, it’s the people you serve that makes your purpose unique. You are the parent for your children. You are the child of your parents. You are the husband to your wife or the wife to your husband. I didn’t even mention the roles of brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, and citizen. And even if you share the role with someone else, as in cases outside of husband and wife, father and mother, God has given you unique gifts to carry out your service to Jesus alongside those who fill the same role.
Give thanks to God for giving life purpose. He has called us to be his own and to live under him in his kingdom both now and forever. He has forgiven us for our failures to carry out our God-given roles and even for despising them. He equips us now for service out of love for him by showing love to them whom he has given us.