that the crowd is right, that the way we are living today is the way we ought to live, that life is sup posed to be what it is to many of us . . . a series of opportunities, trials, successes, failures, seeming to be important, but upon closer examination contributing to noth ing that really matters. Might it just not be true, as the Bible says it is, that somehow the crowd has gone wrong? Another thing this story tells me is that the real purpose in life is not where we first expect to find it. “ After three days they found Him in the temple.” I am sure that this is not the first place they looked. Who of us looking for a 12-year- old would seek him first in church? Surely they went to the market place, thinking He would be ob serving how to drive a shrewd bar gain. Perhaps they even looked for Him over at the camel races. Well, there are many places you and I might look first for real pur pose. We might look for personal success, fulfillment of our ambi tions, social position, power of one kind or another over people around us. But we see today men who have these things, and when we come to know them well enough, we see that many of them are still missing the real purpose. So let us look else where, let us look in the Temple where Jesus was found facing the basic issues of life. Now by the tem ple, I mean the temple of our own hearts—that place where we stand in solitude before God and ask our selves some fundamental questions: who am I, who is God , what is my relation to God? When we find the answers to these questions we will have also found the answer to an other question, what am I doing here? And these are the answers for which our hearts cry. Who am I? I am a living per sonality, born with the possibility of becoming a child of God. Who is God? He is the One who created and keeps in order this universe and what other universes there mav be, and He, the living God, wishes to be my Father. I begin to suspect that life can have real meaning. This meaning comes to life if we see that we can have a right rela
tionship with God, a relationship of Father-child; that God is not dead nor far off, but that He is here and alive and is a God who an swers. But how can we see this; how can we establish a relationship that will make our lives meaning ful? In two ways, I think. One is accepting ourselves for what we are, and the other is accepting God for what He has revealed Himself to be. When we do this—find our selves and find God—then we have found life, and we have found it to have a thrilling purpose. Finding God may not be so diffi cult; He has done everything in His power (except violate our free dom of will) to show us what He is like. At one time in history He ac tually became a man and walked this earth , teaching, preaching, h e a lin g and h e lp in g , h a v in g patience with people, loving them, forgiving them and finally dying for them. This is the picture of God. This is what God is like. This is God in terms that we can under stand. Jesus the carpenter of Naza reth was God become man in order that men might know God. Jesus Christ said, “ I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” This is the only point of view from which the New Testament makes sense. And if you will take the Gospels and the Letters and read them as though they told about God becoming man so that we might know that He loves us and He has a purpose for us, then you will see those writings take on tre mendous significance. But this business of accepting ourselves and our circumstances is where the difficulty really comes. You see, if we accept God as being the kind of personality that Jesus Christ reveals Him to be, then that means that we have been missing the point in life — that we have About tbe Au thor Visitors to the First Presbyterian Church of Walnut Creek, Calif, (near San Fran cisco) are often surprised to find the pastor of this large church is a young man with a crew-cut and the dynamic vocabulary of a college student.
been going out on our own little mission and accomplishing noth ing, when God means us to be on the team doing His will, following His plan and accomplishing His purpose. But no matter how hard it is, this we have to do, for while it is true that we have missed the point, it is also true that God is forgiving. Will not He who forgave all humanity for crucifying Christ also forgive you and me for miss ing His point? Let us then face ourselves, ad mitting our faults and our weak nesses, realizing tha t they are there, but asking God for help in forgetting them, and let us look in faith to Jesus Christ to make up what is lacking. Then let us go on with this diffi cult business. Let us accept our present circumstances as coming from Him and not seek so much to change our circumstances as to do what we think the God who re vealed Himself in Jesus Christ would have us to do in the midst of these circumstances. Let us also seek the fellowship of others who are finding their purpose in Jesus Christ, and here comes a pleasant surprise—we find that we are not alone in our search—not at all— that others are seeking God and finding Him also in Christ. We find others, many others, who feel just as we feel, who are weak just as we are weak, but who, through their faith in a living God are be coming strong and finding life by Christ’s standard to be full of new significance. I know I am talking about what is hard; I know I am talking about a life that may be demanding. It is certain to be challenging, a life that will require us to choose be tween important things, leaving some important things undone, that we might do things that mat ter more. It is a life that will force us into growth and into the accep tance of responsibility, but in this life there will be the ever-growing conviction that Jesus Christ is liv ing, and that He is with us today, that He is guiding us according to God’s plan. This life will never be meaningless, never be boring, nev er be without purpose . . . real, live, true, lasting purpose. END.
TH E K IN G 'S BU SINESS
13
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs