We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
I’ve come to the point where I can say that I’m thankful for my addiction. I’m not thankful for the destruction and pain I caused others, but I can look at my life now and realize that I’m in a place that I would never have been without my addiction. In recovery, I’ve had to change more than just my drug use. I’ve had to reorient my life and in doing so, I’ve found a purpose that I never had before. I often find myself thinking that Scott from 15 years ago would never have stepped foot in a jail or a treatment center to help the addicted.
If you’d have looked at my life back then, before drugs consumed me, you would have noticed that though I went to church on Sundays, I spent most of my time and energy on me and my family. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing – to provide for my family – but I didn’t have much purpose beyond that.
In today’s passage, Paul taught that we all have some higher purpose. We’ve all been created by God for good works which he’s appointed for us to do. Whether or not we do them though, is largely up to us. So, the question is – What is your purpose?
What am I here for? At some time, most of us have felt that our lives are somewhat meaningless. Usually, we just keep pushing on and life gets busy enough that we never answer the question. According to Paul however, there is a specific answer. We do have a purpose for which God created us. Now, it’s up to us to figure out what that is. For some of us, it may be something big, like becoming a missionary to some far-off land, but for most of us, it’s probably just going to be staying where we are, doing what God wants us to do to help those around us. We don’t have to change the world, but we are supposed to love our neighbors, thereby changing our little corner of it.
For me, God has used my own personal struggles to reach out to help those who struggle similarly. This isn’t a bad place to start. We’ve all got some life struggle and we can all use that to identify others around us who need help. We don’t have to be perfect to help others. We just need to be willing to reach a hand down to help someone else. That is what God made us for. That is our purpose.