“For we are God’s workmanship [work of art, masterpiece], created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“ (Ephesians 2:10, NIV)
In 1785, William Paley told a story of a man walking through the forest who stumbles upon a pocket watch (recent inventions in the 18th century). He picks it up, looks it over, opens the back. He sees the crystal front, the minute hand and hour hand…he sees all the gears and levers and mechanisms. He then begins to ponder the watch’s existence. How did it get there? Did all these different parts fall from the sky into what he now held in his hand…or was this the work of a designer – someone who engineered and manufactured the watch?
Paley used the watchmaker analogy to argue for the existence of a Divine Creator. Complex things, like watches or the world, don’t just appear. Multiple and various parts functioning together in a system do so only by design.
But the analogy works well for what we’re talking about this week in Step 2 of our Growth Track. This week’s topic is “Discover.”
Let’s say you’re the watch – beautiful, complex, intricate, and very useful. And like the watch, you didn’t just fall from the sky. You were designed – engineered and put together. According to Psalm 139, you were “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Your creator made you in his image (Gen. 1:27) – you’re a masterpiece of craftsmanship (that’s what Paul says above).
Why were you made? That’s the question we’ll answer on Sunday as you discover your purpose – your usefulness. And though it sounds complex and philosophical – “Why do I exist? – it really isn’t that difficult:
Your personality + your spiritual gift + your passion = your purpose.
Make sure you’re with us on Sunday and we’ll figure it out together! I can’t wait to see all the light bulbs go on!
