Purpose

            I want to truly believe each and every day that I have a purpose. Not because I am special, talented, smart, loved... only because I was formed by the hands of God and He dreamed me into being and He put me here for a purpose. In my line of work I daily meet a wide spectrum of stages of life and because of that types of belief. I say belief because what used to be religion is now often called spirituality. And spirituality can be anything from yoga to tai chi to going to a catholic mass. I believe deep within each of us is the desire to know the God who created us. Because it is within knowing him that we finally know and find ourselves.      

         "...that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’ as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’" Acts 17:27-28

                     He put within us a deep desire to know and love ourselves, which comes from knowing and loving him. He is not far from us and we "feel" that whether we want to admit it or not. I believe that is the root of our desire and search for spirituality. The interesting thing is, the Bible doesn`t say anything about spirituality, and the only times I know of that it talks about religion is in a negative sense. Correct me by commenting below. Why do we all have this desire, this hunger to know something beyond ourselves and to be able to depend on it for sustenance, strength, and joy. Instead the Word talks about faith and belief. But the world would rather hear and talk about spirituality than they would religion. So how do we as Christians labeled among the religious, reach them?

                Without sharing all that I am learning in my daily job with patients both the 90 year olds who first ask me, so where do you go to church honey? And the 50-60 year olds who haven`t been in a church since they were forced by their parents to go... and what I am learning while reading, Spiritual Care by Judith Allen Shelly... I believe that we reach them by our love.

              Christ himself said they will know us by our love. By this EVERYONE will know that we are HIS. Not just that we believe, that we are "Christians" but that we belong to Christ! That God created us in our inmost being and He dreamed our dreams into being and has placed us among these people so that they can see and feel that they too were created and dreamed up by Him. 

             People sometimes tell me that I am great... that my mother raised me well and taught me not only morality and manners but how to keep and manage and house and how to react and love children... and she did. I cannot praise her enough for that. At the same time I know that I am not great, I am grateful. I am grateful for the God who created me and made me exactly how and who I am and put me exactly where I am with the dreams that I am always, always dreaming. He made me a dreamer and He made me a compassionate, sympathetic soul. 

And I am grateful. 

Grateful because I am His. Because He pursed me and chased after me time and time again when I doubted that I was His. When I doubted that He was even there. Grateful because He threw my sins and mistakes into the depths of the sea and He has forgiven me wholeheartedly and made me new. Grateful because He delights in me. He loves to see me working, studying, enjoying life. Eating, talking, laughing, even crying. He delights to know me. Grateful because He is more than enough for all of my worries and fears. Grateful because when I fail even later today, He will still love me. Grateful because He gives me the strength and the sustenance to keep going and keep dreaming and not let the world, my failures, my doubts, defeat me. 

I am His. And so I have a purpose.