More Valuable than Birds
What is our purpose in life? Everyone always seems to think that their purpose is to be busy and fill all their time with activities. When we just sit around, we feel like we are wasting time, but is that true? Is busyness a sign of purpose? Is a lack of activity a sign that we are failing in the purpose of our life? Definitely not! The Bible tells a vastly different story of our purpose in life. The Bible tells us that our purpose in life is simply and only to have a relationship with God. Everything else is a distraction.
One day, Jesus was talking to a crowd of people and a man asked Jesus to tell his brother to share his inheritance with the man. Jesus responded in a way that the man never expected. Basically, Jesus told the man that he had his priorities all wrong. Then Jesus started telling stories to illustrate the uselessness of focusing on finding security in this world. Jesus said that there was only one place to put our hopes and fears and worries. He said that we need to stop worrying about physical goals and start focusing on a relationship with God. “And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!” (Luke 12:22-24).
Jesus tells us, “You are more valuable than birds, so do not worry about being busy with all the activities that the world says are important. Instead, God has a different purpose for you. It’s a simple purpose, yet so satisfying.” John wrote about this purpose when he was an old man giving advice to the young Christians around him. In 1 John 4:7-8, he wrote: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Here is our real purpose in life—loving and knowing God. It does not matter if our lives are full of activities and parties or if we have a boring life and no hobbies. It does not matter if we are young enough to scamper down the hall, or if we are so old that we can barely move without groaning. None of these considerations has anything to do with what is really important. John tells us what is important: love.
This love is not some kind of sentimental silly love that comes and goes as we feel good or bad. No, this is real love. God’s love. This is love that is with us when we are happy, and it is love that is a close companion when we are feeling depressed and lonely. This is God’s love. Our purpose is not a function of what we feel or what we can or cannot do because of our infirmities. The reason for our existence is not about our actions or lack of actions. It is solely about loving and being loved, especially by God.
Some people worry because they feel like they do not love God enough. They worry that they do not measure up to God’s standards and expectations of us. At times, we might not even be sure how strong our love for God is. When we are feeling sick or weak or in despair, it is common to feel as if our love is a weak pale feeling. We believe that we do not love God much because our emotions are buried under pain or hurt feelings, but there is a secret that a lot of people do not realize. The purpose for our lives does not revolve around how much we love God. Our confidence and reason for living comes directly from how much God loves us. After living with Jesus closely, John understood this profound truth. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
No, the way we live our lives has never been dependent on whether we love God. We will experience fulfillment in life only by having the assurance that God loves us. Jesus came to this world because He loved us. His death on the cross was because He loved us. Even now, as He ministers for us in heaven, it is because He loves us. He loves you. He loves me.
If having a fulfilling life is not about performing some action or producing some great work, what is our purpose? We must simply accept God’s love for us. We need to accept that God wants to be an integral part of our lives and learn to know Him. We need to have conversations with Him about our problems. We must take time to listen to Him when He wants to tell us of His love for us instead of brushing Him off and hurrying to complete the next activity on our to-do list. This idea of listening is confusing for some people who say, “How can I listen to God. I can’t hear Him” but that is not true. We can hear Him. We can hear God telling us that He loves us in the words of the scriptures. We can see God’s love in the squirrels that scurry around outside jumping from tree to tree. And many of us have heard His voice assuring us of His love through His Spirit speaking directly to us.
John tells us of yet another place where we can find God. In 1 John 4:11-12, he says: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” John says that we can know God’s love for us by loving other people. Do you want a purpose in your life? Love other people. We do not need to be famous for our great accomplishments to please God. He only asks for two activities from us. He wants us to accept His love for us, and He wants us to love each other. Note here that this experience is about you loving other people, not about how many people love you. It is wonderful to be loved back by others, and Christians will experience this if they are giving love, but your job is to receive love from God and spread His love to other people, not to receive love from people in order to experience a satisfying life. In the end, these two loves are the only accomplishments of lasting importance in this life.
“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). God’s message for us is simple, but at the same time, it is the most profound truth in the universe. Life is not about how much money we have or whether we are healthy or how busy we are or how many friends we have. Life is about having one Friend. God wants to be our friend. God wants us to be with Him. In John 15:4-5, Jesus told us what He wanted us to accomplish in our lives. He said that He simply wanted us to be with Him. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” We need Jesus’ love in our lives, and we have a great need to love Him back. That is our purpose. Anything else is an unfulfilling waste of time.
You may have discovered this truth already many years before I did. If you did, I am happy for you and the great love you have known for so many years, but if you have forgotten it lately, I want to remind you. You are special to God. He loves you with a love greater and truer and deeper than you can imagine. Do not ever believe that He has forgotten you and stopped loving you. Jesus promised that He loves you and knows you. He promised that You are valuable to God in Luke 12:6-7. “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
What is your purpose? You need to choose to open up your heart to God every day, and let the One who knows you inside and out, to your very depths–your selfishness and vanity, your hypocrisy, your pale weak personality, and your empty ambitions–fill you with His immense love for You.