What's the Point?

Our world is filled with hopeless people. Anxiety and depression dominate our lives and many are in desperate search for anything that will relieve the pain. Stop anyone on the street and ask them: What's the point of life?

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Most will toss a flippant answer or tell you honestly that they don't know. Other answers might be: "Just trying to get by" or "Trying to have all the fun I can before I die."

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Even those who've had some exposure to religion in the past fair no better than the atheist. "I tried the church thing, but it didn't work for me."

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Others take a more humanitarian approach and fill their lives with good deeds and generosity, but the motivation is the same: an attempt to quiet the persistent voice inside that asks "What's the point?"
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So what is the point?

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If religion isn't the answer, charity work doesn't satisfy, and addictions only make things worse, what are we supposed to do? Ever take a good long look at your life and ask yourself "Why am I here? If I'm only here to help others, what are THEY here for??"

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Despite its occasional highs, life is filled with tough choices, painful truths, and struggles that don't seem worth the effort. For too many, suicide seems the only option, yet we all cringe at the thought. We may not know why we're here, but we're certain suicide is never the best choice.

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Could it be that we're looking at life completely backward?

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We start our questioning focused on ourselves. "How can I be happy? Why am I here? How can I fulfill all these needs and longings in my life?"

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What if it's not about YOU?

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Imagine you took a pottery class and spent all day molding a bowl, which you intended to fire and glaze as a gift for your best friend. It turned out beautifully and you were very excited about it. You knew right where your friend would set it and you were already blending paint to coordinate with her room's color scheme.

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Now imagine that your unfired bowl rolls itself off the pottery wheel and glares up at you. "I don't want to be a bowl. I preferred being a lump of clay in the pile over there. I don't think I'll enjoy being all prettied up and I'm certain I won't like the ovens! I think I'll just roll back over there on the clay heap." And off it goes.

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That illustration is silly because we all know that clay is just clay. It doesn't have the right or the ability to refuse. It's not about the clay, it's about the potter. No lump of clay is of value by itself. It has no worth at all until it has been molded and beautified in the hands of a skillful potter.

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We are God's creation, lumps of clay that had no value until he breathed His Spirit into us. We only find our purpose as we submit ourselves to His skillful hands. It's not about us. We don't know who we are or what we want any more than a lump of clay does. Our Designer knows the potential He placed in each of us and it is only in a relationship with Him that we can experience it.

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As long as we lumps of clay continue trying to fulfill ourselves by our own initiative, we remain useless and with no sense of purpose. It's not about shaping up, going to church, trying to be a better person. None of that works for long, because it's all done in our own strength and we don't have enough of that.

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It's about surrendering yourself as a lump of clay to the work of the Potter's hands and becoming a beautiful work of art. Who needs empty religion, hopelessness, or addictions when you're on display in God's art gallery?

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