We Are Made for So Much More
As we end one year and begin a new year, this is a good time to pause and reflect on the following questions: Who are we? Why are we here? Is there more to life than this? We are living in a crazy world. You could use other and more adjectives to describe the current world situation but crazy sums it up for me. If we claim to be God’s people, followers of Jesus Christ, how then should we live in this crazy world? The answer—we are made for so much more than this. When we read the creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2, Psalm 139, and other passages we see that God creates with passion, with love and precision, and purpose.
Genesis 1:26-28 — Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 2:7-8,15 — Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. … The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Psalm 139:13-16 — For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
And then Ephesians 2:10 — For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We are his beloved creations. He made us with painstaking care and clear intentionality, with a clear purpose for us and our lives. But there is a disconnect and a tension we experience in our lives. It’s the disconnect between the life we are meant for and the life we are living in this world. It’s the tension between the already and the not yet. In Christ, we are new creations, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (2 Co 5:17; Eph 4:24). But our old sinful selves are still battling in us causing us to sin and do what we do not want to do. We believe and confess that God is in control yet the world seems to be spinning out of control. We experience this disconnect this tension because we are made for so much more than this life and this world.
1. We Are Made to Be Confident
We long for confidence because we are designed to be confident — confident in who we are, where we are, and why we are here. Confident we have a place, a position in this world; a purpose and part to play in this story, God’s Story. But mostly, we are not confident. We feel unsure. Undistinguished. Insecure. We are anxious, worried, even fearful of what is happening and what may lie ahead. Perhaps God made a mistake. Forgot something. Left something out.
So, we cover up the pain, the doubt, the insecurity, the anxiety, the fear with whatever is convenient. We cover it up with and we seek confidence and security in worldly things, in wealth, politics, human ideologies. We resolve to work harder. We compare and compete with others. Or we give up in despair and numb the pain with alcohol, drugs, sex, food, and pleasure.
You feel that you have to prove yourself, every day. You don’t have to prove yourself. Jesus Christ already did that for us. God’s grace is sufficient for us. We are forgiven. We are new creations. We are the children of God. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can now live with confidence the kingdom life as his children in this world.
2. We Are Made for Significance
We long for significance because we are designed to do work that matters. We are designed for a mission, to be necessary parts of something larger than ourselves. We’re designed for adventure, to take big risks toward worthy goals. But we have been taught by our culture and society to be fearful and careful. So, we try to control everything, to be in control instead of trusting God. And we mostly focus on minimizing risk, avoiding pain, surviving, seeking convenience, comfort. We have forgotten what it’s like to take real risks. We wonder if there are any worthy goals that need big risks anymore.
You feel restless, underutilized. Yes, we are if we are just living for self, if we are not living according to God’s purpose and vision for our lives. However, in Jesus Christ, we find new life and new purpose. When we follow Him, we live to glorify God in all we do. We have a new vision. We want to see God’s kingdom come and his will be done in our lives, families, work, communities, and in the world.
3. We Are Made for Joy
We long for joy because we are made for it. We are designed for wholeness and fullness, for freedom. We are designed to thrive. But mostly, we’re just busy and worn-out; tired. Our lives are filled, but not full. Work is work. And there’s little time to rest, to restore, to do anything we love to do. So our senses have dulled. We don’t smell the trees, the rain when it comes, the wood smoke. We have no time to stop and smell the flowers. We’ve come to dread Monday morning and barely feel the freedom of a Saturday afternoon anymore.
It feels like something has been lost. Something has. We are no longer rejoicing in the Lord always and in all circumstances. We no longer obey the Lord’s command to observe his Sabbath rest. It has become a day to catch up on work. We have lost the joy and peace of living in complete trust, dependence on God and his provisions, and faithfulness. However, when we believe in Jesus Christ and love Him we are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy. He is in us and we are in Him, and we are able to rejoice in the Lord always no matter what our circumstances are.
4. We Are Made for Relationships with God
We long for good, strong relationships with God because we are designed for them. We are made for the intimacy, protection, and strength of living in fellowship with God. We’re designed to laugh, to pray, and be ourselves with Him. We’re meant to be known all the way by Him and be loved still. We are designed to walk with Him and work with Him and know Him intimately. We are made to be God’s children, part of His family. We are made to be members of the Body of Christ, his church. We are designed to have loving, caring, serving relationships and fellowship with one another.
But mostly, we keep to ourselves. We are reluctant to drop our defenses. We hide from God and from others. We are fearful we’ll hear something from God or others we won’t like. We hide behind masks afraid that if people know who we really are they will reject us. We try to hide some things from God, forgetting that He already knows everything about us. And He loves us still. We are fearful we might not be good enough to be accepted, loved, and forgiven by God and others. We are fearful we might be diverted from our earthly goals and selfish interests. We are unwilling to trust. So, we isolate further from God and from brothers and sisters in Christ.
It does not have to be this way. We are made for more. Jesus Christ reconciled us with God and one another. He healed and restored our broken relationships. Because of Him we can now again enter freely and without fear into the presence of God. Jesus showed us what true love is, and in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to love God with our whole beings and love others as we love ourselves. We are designed to love and be loved, for relationships and community.
5. We Are Made to Be Heroes in God’s Story
We are made to be heroes in God’s Story. Yes, we are living in a crazy world. Yes, we are experiencing a disconnect. We are living in this tension because God’s purposes for us go beyond this broken world. He has made us for something bigger and better. He has made us for a world restored, perfect and eternal, but that world has simply not yet come. This one has not yet been restored. It will be. Jesus’ work has begun already. And He will finish it. But as of now, it is only partially done, not yet completed. So, here we are in a broken world we’re not made for. What’s more, for now, this world “lies in the power of the evil one” (1 Jn 5:19). Jesus is Lord of the universe. He is in control. He will rule the new creation to come. But for now, Satan holds sway in this world.
We are heroes in God’s Story because we are designed by God to join Jesus in his work of restoring things. We are called to do our parts in pulling this world out of crisis. It’s a tremendous gift and profound honor but the evil one hates it. He knows that in the last act of God’s Story he will be overthrown and he wants to take as many with him as he can. That’s why he is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for people to devour (1 Pet 5:8). Therefore, we should be alert and of sober mind but we should not be afraid of him. We are the ones through whom Jesus works on earth by the power of the Holy Spirit.
However, Satan is not just standing by. No, he has set the culture, the ways of the world against God’s kingdom and against us. He uses culture as a weapon to defend the current order, this sinful, crazy world. And this is how he does it: he promotes a set of lies, “for he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). He disseminates lies into and through our culture. He shapes culture in the hope that it will shape us to conform to this world.
For he knows, when and if we discover our true identity — who we are and what we are made for by God — then we also discover true confidence, real meaning, true significance, unspeakable joy, and loving relationships. We discover what Jesus promised — the more and better life than we have ever dreamed of. We also discover impact. We discover exactly how we are meant to do our parts to restore this world, each one of us uniquely in the ways God gifted us, uniquely in the places where He placed us. We discover we are heroes in God’s Story and how to be heroes in his Story.
So, Satan is hell-bent on hindering us. He pummels us again and again with lies telling us who to be and what to do. His false messages are everywhere. And they are insidious because they don’t sound so bad, they actually sound good and right at first. He tempts us with lies to put our hope, find the good life, and seek our salvation in worldly things. Of course, if we believe his lies, and if we follow them, they hold us back from real life, from goodness, meaning, purpose, joy, and love. They debilitate us, keep us unsure of ourselves. They cause us to merely survive and not thrive, tired and underutilized, isolated, hopeless. And eventually, they lead us to our deaths.
So, here we are. In a world screaming for redemption, with a vicious enemy, with the odds stacked against us living the way our God designed us to live. Things look grim. Yet, we are here, in this world but not of this world. We are made for more than this. We are kingdom people. We are heroes in God’s Story called to live in the radically different, revolutionary ways of God’s kingdom. We are called to bring about the kingdom revolution, a love revolution. Let us become a band of rebels, renegades and revolutionaries, change-makers and trouble-makers — people who don’t accept the world as it is because we know that we are made for something better, something higher.
We are kingdom citizens on our way to the restored, new creation, on our way to God’s eternal and glorious kingdom of perfect peace, shalom. We are here to follow our one true and only King and Lord in his mission. He sends us into this world to be his kingdom builders. Every day, everywhere we are, live, work, and play there we must erect signs of God’s kingdom by living the kingdom life.
It won’t be easy. It’s hard to be radically different. We will be persecuted. In episode 1 of Season 2 of The Chosen, Jesus said these words, “In this world bones will still break, hearts will still break, but in the end, the light will overcome the darkness.” Jesus Christ is the life and the light of all humankind. He, the Light, shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And it never can, and it never will.
We are his messengers now. We must go and invite the people, “Come and see. Come and see Jesus Christ, the only true Lord of the world. Enter the kingdom through Him. He gives new life. He has made us for so much more than this.