The great question that every person faces is what is man’s purpose in life? The most common answer from Christians is something along the lines of ‘To glorify God and enjoy him forever”. That may indeed be a great answer, but in order to construct an argument from it, let us analyze what it means to glorify and enjoy God.
First let us look at glorifying God. To glorify is much the same as to honor, to make look good, etc. The best way I know to honor God is to obey his commandments, pretty fundamental right? Okay, so glorifying God is obeying God, but what else does it mean? As Christians we are called to be ambassadors for Christ, so how does an ambassador honor he who sent him? By behaving in such a way that brings credit to the name of the sender. So glorifying God is being obedient to his commands and acting in a way that brings credit to his name.
But what does it mean to enjoy God? Most people I believe have grasped the idea, if not the practice, that enjoying God means creating and cultivating a relationship with him. I would submit that one way to enjoy God is to enjoy what he has created. God created the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and God created man. God does not create to fill space. Everything he creates is to glorify him in some way. When man sings a song, paints a picture, has a family, grows a garden, plants an orchard, raises an animal, he is glorifying God by engaging in the creation that God made.
There are two extremes that Christians seem to be prone to, at least in America. One group says that we should enjoy what God has created, learn about him from the good things in life. They then proceed to chase a relationship with God by spending all their free time ‘enjoying God’ without attending to the business God has given them to do. It such people the phrase ‘So heavenly minded they are no earthly good’ refers to. The other extreme is to be so focused on following the particular mission or command God has given that we forget to enjoy and engage in the world that God created.
To bring this all together, if you focus on enjoying God through the life he has given you, you will fail to complete his plan for you. You are like the soldier who, having gone behind enemy lines, proceeds to get to know the occupied locals and joins their tribe; a relationship has been established, but nothing has been done to further the lord’s plan. You have failed to make a meaningful contribution to the Lords work. When you stand before the Throne with God Almighty sitting in judgment what will you say? ‘I knew you Lord, though I ignored your commandments’? ‘Lord I enjoyed your creation, though I did nothing to save others from hellfire’?
If on the other hand you become so focused on completing the mission God has given you, you will become disappointed and bitter. Man is built for victory. In one of the Nazi prison camps, it was said that a particular commander ordered an experiment to see how people handled a pointless task. Prisoners were forced to move a pile of rocks from one side of a field to the other, then back again, day after day. Men began going mad on the third day. God does not ask any of us to accomplish a goal or mission, and for a very simple reason, we can’t. Until Christ returns, we are fighting a losing battle. God asks only that we give everything we have to fight for him, and he will worry about the results. If your only focus is on glorifying God through obeying his commands, you will be sorely tested as you see yourself failing continuously to make any kind of impact on the world. Doing combat with the world, the flesh, and the devil, you will be wounded many times, and you must seek comfort in the Lord if you are to continue. When you stand before the Throne, will the Lord say to you “You obeyed me, but did you love me? You honor me, but do you love me?”
There is no easy way. If you want to be called a good and faithful servant you must not only enjoy the Lord, but you must honor him as well. Do not spend all your time trying to achieve measureable success, do not ask, at the end of the day ‘What did I get done’ or ‘Do I feel fulfilled’. Instead, ask ‘Did I make good use of my time to honor and glorify the Lord’?
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