Genesis1:

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the surface of the waters

The Purpose of Life

One stubborn question that lodged delicately in my mind and couldn’t be dislodged was the question of the reason for life. This gave me a delirious and sleepless nights of ages. I was a boy of ten or nine years old. Why was I? Why was and is man? What was and is he supposed to be doing on the planet earth? 

A highly introverted one, I could be found moving around town, speaking to myself which turned me out to be a suspect as a boy who was was either demented or one who was in constant fellowship with some invisible earthlings.

Raison’detre. It’s a question that tenaciously clung to me. As I ran errands for my grand parents, fetching pipe borne water from the other street and playing football with my street friends, the question kept ringing in my mind, Why are you and what are you doing here? A Catholic church member, I attended baptismal classes to put a a good face to being a being. No answer except that I had the hope of going to heaven after now instead of hell. I was born, became a being, enjoy and suffer all that the earth had to give or inflict on me just to go to heaven! Well who wanted to go to hell, that fearful place of everlasting torment? I wisely chose to go to heaven in the absence of any alternative.

Why am I here? But the coast of this question enlarged as I grew up. I drew my mind into a void,centered into the mind of God to plumb the reason for my being. I drew existence into the void, erased all existence from my consciousness, assumed the role of the creator. For a split second, I enjoyed that role but nothing came of it. Nothing made sense.

Yet the world continued. The people in it were unconcerned. This question that brothered me didn’t bother them. I even accosted the adult world: “Why did we come to the world?” This was a woman and she enthused in her reply, “We came to the world to have children, to wear fine clothes and to build house.” This was the least satisfying answer. Even the adult world could not give reasonable answer to the reason why man was here.

I needed to comfort myself. I needed to escape the nagging prison.

Across to the mud house of my grandparents was an imposing two story building of a famous man who was highly respected and deferred to in the community. He was the encapsulation of what life meant. I spoke to myself as I went about in the street: “I sure don’t know the purpose of life, but at least, I’ll grow up to be like —” It’s the name of the man across the street. I knew I would have his own type of house, his own type of car,…” I’d have my driver like him who would be driving me about in the community.” Life couldn’t be more purposeful!

Even then, the list grew as I added days and years to my existence. The vision of the rich man of the community as the reason for living was a temporary relieve.

The raison’detre – the reason for being! We hope to continue this meditation, however, skeletal, in the book of bible’s Genesis.

Lord, Your purpose for our existence is awesome. I can step into this if only I discover it. Help me to come to this estate.

Thank, You Lord