Quite a few of us ask ourselves, and maybe God, “Why am I here?” I have to admit that I have asked God that very question.
Have any of you discovered the answer to that burning question? Do you know why God put you here? Maybe you’d like to share your discovery with us. No.
Well, then I’ll just have to share with you what I think the answer is and you’ll have to decide for yourselves whether you agree or not.
I believe that God has put us here in this place at this time to love Him. To love him with our hearts, minds, and souls and…to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. That’s it. We are here for God, to love him with all our being and…to love our neighbors.
Now that doesn’t sound so difficult until we come to the realization that that means everyone. Not just the people we know and love because they love us but even those we find not so lovely.
And I believe that when we are told by Jesus to love our neighbor that means that we care enough about them to actually see to their needs. We are called to be servants of Christ to them as Paul mentions in his second letter to the Corinthians.
Even that doesn’t sound like it would be too hard to do until we remember the neighbor down the street who spends his whole paycheck at the bar and then can’t come up with his monthly rent check. Or the young mother who can’t quit smoking and most of her check goes for that instead of groceries for her family. Or there’s the new family that moved to town and the husband lost his job and you notice that they have these really expensive new cell phones but they buy their groceries with food stamps. Then being a servant of Christ to them, without being judgmental, becomes awfully hard. In fact some people refuse to serve them at that point.
I don’t believe that Jesus meant for us to judge whether this person could be served and this other person couldn’t just because we know they’ve made some really bad life decisions. I believe that Jesus is asking us to serve all of them no matter what and let him be the one who does the judging.
Now, that doesn’t mean we have to approve of the decisions people make but it does mean that we are to love them and care for them just as God loves and cares for us, unconditionally. At least that’s what I believe.
Do I always do it right? Nope. In fact I find myself coming to God asking him to forgive me and give me another chance to get it right.
I don’t know if I answered the question right or not but it is what I believe. So if you are wondering why God has allowed you to live as many years as you have this may be the reason. There are folks that he wants you to lovingly serve. And of course while you are doing that he wants to receive your love too. He’s kind of jealous that way.
So, as we approach the season of Lent and Easter let’s think about why we are here and what we should be doing with the time God has given us. Let’s commit our lives to be ones of service to our fellow humans who live among us.
Instead of giving up something for Lent let’s instead serve our friends and neighbors by giving them our love with our whole being.
Thanks be to God for his loving grace. Amen.
