On their drive from Florida to join my son Andy in Iowa, Andy’s wife, Kristen, her mom, Tina, and their 21-month-old daughter Paige spent the night in a hotel. Before touching anything, Kristen and Tina disinfected the room with Clorox wipes. When they realized that Paige was not in the room, they ran into the bathroom, only to find her happily minding her own business, dunking Ritz crackers in the toilet. So much for sterile.
Paige loves to dunk…basketballs in a toddler-size net, French fries in ketchup or yogurt or fruit drinks, chicken nuggets in…well, everything. But she never has shown any interest in toilets, so this came as quite an unwelcomed surprise to her mother and grandmother.
We all know the purpose of toilets…and it’s not to dunk crackers.
“Purpose” is defined as the “reason for which something is done or created; the reason for its existence.” Everything has a purpose, right? Okay, probably not ramps like the picture.
Anyway, in my curiosity, I asked some friends if they could think of anything with no purpose. Many answered “mosquitoes,” with one trivia junkie adding that more people have died of mosquito bites than from all of the world wars combined. (Google claims that 2.7 million people die every year from these pests.) But no purpose? Lest we forget, there is that little food-chain thing.
Years ago, Pastor Rich Warren wrote The Purpose-Driven Life, a best-seller. Readers were challenged to look at their spiritual purpose and answer this question: “Why are you here?” Some claimed that it was to make money. Others, to have children. Many said that it was to leave the world a better place than they found it. The question is not an easy one.
Warren wanted people to be honest about where glorifying God fits into their purpose. Let’s say that He’s not central, but is He anywhere on your list of why you exist? If your answer is no, maybe it’s time to figure out why you think you were created. Matthew 7:7-11 lets us know where to go to figure that out: Ask, and God will give to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will open for you.
In the book 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God That Invites You into His Story, my devotion this morning was about the book of Ruth. In it, author Larry Crabb writes words that he pictures God imparting to him: “You value what I can give you more than you value the privilege and delight of knowing Me and being radically changed by the experience…I am determined to reverse your values
Some day we all are going to have a literal “Come to Jesus” moment where our life’s objective will be revealed to the One who made us. If we want to make our lives count, then we must allow God to have His way with us…to reverse our values, to help us delight in knowing who He is. Before it’s too late.
Readers, this is serious stuff. Should we get distracted and live a dunk-the-cracker-in-the-toilet existence, we will miss the main purpose we were put on earth.