"The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the inward parts of my mother hath He made mention of my name." Isaiah 49:1
"Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremiah 1:5
"[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and marked out for them an appointed span of life and the boundaries of their lands." Acts 17:26 (KJV & WNT)
Purpose and creation are two concepts that are intrinsically linked. If you were not created, not caused by a creator/maker--if you merely happened, if your cause was accidental, if your source is arational haphazardness--then there is no pleasure or pursuit under the sun that will change the fundamental fact that you and your existence are ultimately meaningless. I say, "ultimately," because you may live a relatively meaningful life, with accomplishments, feats, progeny, and legacies. In the end, however, all that you are and have done will fade away. You will die (death is the only certainty in an arational, haphazard universe), and all of your doings will die with you. Seriously ask yourself: how many people's doings have outlived them for generations? Perhaps a handful or two. How many will have their doings span eternity? None. Our Sun will die; all suns will die, all worlds will freeze. Equilibrium will have been reached; entropy will have finished its deathly task. Ultimately, we will all fad into frozen darkness, with all of our doings entombed with us. If our beginning was mere happenstance, so too shall be our ending. Even science knows that as a fact.
IF, however, our beginning was not mere happenstance, if our beginning was the caused product of a rational mind, a rational being, a rational soul, what does that mean? What does it mean to be "created" and not to merely have "happened"? It means a lot, because "created" implies purpose. Everything that is created has a purpose, even if the purpose is small (like dust, or a thumbtack) or non-utilitarian (like a painting). If we have been created, then there is no need to "find" or "make" your own purpose. As a created being, purpose is a fundamental fact of who you are.
"The Lord hath called me...." If purpose and creation are intrinsically linked, then the knowledge of a certain purpose is contingent upon the knowledge of a certain creator/maker. You can know nothing of a thing's true intentions until you can ascertain its creator's true intent. To ascertain such knowledge, we either ask the creator, or (if they are unavailable) we read what they have written about it (if such a record exists). In regards to ourselves, we can do both: we have God's written record (the Scriptures), and Christ has died and rose again so that we can be brought back to God and have fellowship with Him again. They are available to us, if we choose to use them. We can reject them, but we will be living (as T.S. Eliot said) in a constant evasion of ourselves.
"We are not of chaos born
And to chaos thrown.
We are of Logos born,
For God and God alone..."
-Jon Vowell
"Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremiah 1:5
"[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and marked out for them an appointed span of life and the boundaries of their lands." Acts 17:26 (KJV & WNT)
Purpose and creation are two concepts that are intrinsically linked. If you were not created, not caused by a creator/maker--if you merely happened, if your cause was accidental, if your source is arational haphazardness--then there is no pleasure or pursuit under the sun that will change the fundamental fact that you and your existence are ultimately meaningless. I say, "ultimately," because you may live a relatively meaningful life, with accomplishments, feats, progeny, and legacies. In the end, however, all that you are and have done will fade away. You will die (death is the only certainty in an arational, haphazard universe), and all of your doings will die with you. Seriously ask yourself: how many people's doings have outlived them for generations? Perhaps a handful or two. How many will have their doings span eternity? None. Our Sun will die; all suns will die, all worlds will freeze. Equilibrium will have been reached; entropy will have finished its deathly task. Ultimately, we will all fad into frozen darkness, with all of our doings entombed with us. If our beginning was mere happenstance, so too shall be our ending. Even science knows that as a fact.
IF, however, our beginning was not mere happenstance, if our beginning was the caused product of a rational mind, a rational being, a rational soul, what does that mean? What does it mean to be "created" and not to merely have "happened"? It means a lot, because "created" implies purpose. Everything that is created has a purpose, even if the purpose is small (like dust, or a thumbtack) or non-utilitarian (like a painting). If we have been created, then there is no need to "find" or "make" your own purpose. As a created being, purpose is a fundamental fact of who you are.
"The Lord hath called me...." If purpose and creation are intrinsically linked, then the knowledge of a certain purpose is contingent upon the knowledge of a certain creator/maker. You can know nothing of a thing's true intentions until you can ascertain its creator's true intent. To ascertain such knowledge, we either ask the creator, or (if they are unavailable) we read what they have written about it (if such a record exists). In regards to ourselves, we can do both: we have God's written record (the Scriptures), and Christ has died and rose again so that we can be brought back to God and have fellowship with Him again. They are available to us, if we choose to use them. We can reject them, but we will be living (as T.S. Eliot said) in a constant evasion of ourselves.
"We are not of chaos born
And to chaos thrown.
We are of Logos born,
For God and God alone..."
-Jon Vowell
No comments:
Post a Comment