One Sunday I showed the
congregation an object my brother had given me.
I
asked if anybody knew what it was; only a handful did.
The metal object had
three cone-shaped cog wheels that didn’t quite mesh together. At the other end of its
eight-inch length it
was threaded. It
was hollow from one end
to the other.
Can you guess what
the object was? It
was a drill bit,
capable of drilling a hole hundreds of feet into the earth, even
through
rock. I
keep the discarded drill bit as
a reminder that everything, no matter how odd-looking, has a purpose.
We give a variety of
names to something when we don’t know its purpose.
We call it a whatchamacallit, widget,
doohickey, or doodad. (By
the way, all
these names are in the dictionary!)
Something is only
useful when we know what it’s for — when we know its intended purpose. This applies not only to
manufactured items,
but also to people. If
we believe our
existence is the result of a mindless evolutionary process, we’re
driven to
believe that our existence has no ultimate purpose.
On
the other hand, if we believe we’re here
because God made us and put us here, we have a purpose.
The more we’re open
to God, the closer we draw near to Him, and the greater degree to which
we’re
willing to yield to Him, the more our sense of purpose increases.
We do have a
purpose. We just
have to discover what
it is. In
God’s eyes we’re not a
whatchamacallit, widget, doohickey, or doodad!
“The Lord will
fulfill his purpose for me.”
Psalm 138:8