Your Created Purpose

By Chaz Oswald, Michigan

baseballgame
Baseball is a popular pastime in America. In this sport, a baseball bat (a long, thin, fairly light but tough object) is designed for the specific purpose of hitting a baseball. The greatest potential for a baseball bat is realized when it is used to hit a homerun—when all players can make it safely to home base and score.

Though the specific purpose of the bat is to advance one team’s victory over another, it may be misused. For example, a baseball bat may be used (instead of a golf club) to hit a golf ball; or used (instead of a hammer) to nail tent stakes into the ground by a camper.

A baseball bat can also be ill used to cause harm—to hurt or intimate someone. In the extreme, it can even be used in a despicable act of vandalism—to vandalize an automobile or an old warehouse.

In these cases, the baseball bat was not used for its intended created purpose—that is, to hit a baseball. And best of all, to hit a homerun.

In a sense, we are like a baseball bat. Our Creator made each of us with a specific purpose. Our lives were intended for something good—not bad, not merely good—but great!

“For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV)

Along life’s journey, there are many exits, pit stops, and off ramps which may seem good and enticing. When we veered off down a lesser road—away from what God intends for us—we would not be living to our fullest potential. When we are seduced into living a life that is just “good enough” or settled into the comfortable or become lazy, we would be guilty of misusing this precious gift—life.

We must remember that the good is truly the enemy of the best. To reach our God-given potential—to hit life’s “homerun”, we must not become complacent and settle for an easy life. Instead, we must strive for the purpose God intended for us so that we may glorify His name.

Let us live the purpose-filled life God has planned for us so that we will be able to say, just as Paul: “I have fought the good (worthy, honorable, and noble) fight, I have finished the race, I have kept (firmly held) the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7, The Amplified Bible).

Filed under Writing and tagged with Chaz, Christlikeness, Living for Jesus.