What On Earth Am I Here For?

Pastor Dan Southern

Let me ask this: "How would you answer that question?" Or perhaps I should say, "How have you answered it?" Because even if you’ve never read Plato or Socrates; even if you don’t consider yourself to be a philosopher; you are still operating on the basis of some implicit assumptions about life’s meaning and purpose. The choices you make every day; the things you value and desire; the way you invest your time and energy – all of these reflect some underlying belief about who you are and why you are here.

Your functional philosophy might be that there is no greater meaning, that in the end, none of this really matters. That bleak assessment has been shared by many throughout history. For instance, in Macbeth, Shakespeare wrote,

"Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."

Some, on the other hand, claim that the meaning of life is entirely individual. Life has whatever meaning you assign to it; you alone determine what it means for you. And we see around us people who have chosen all kinds of things to pursue as their own personal highest good. There is no end of things that people have devoted themselves to, in an attempt to find meaning and purpose.

But all of them miss the mark. They may be good things, but they are not, fundamentally, why we are here. They miss the mark because they start in the wrong place. They all begin with people. The proper place to begin is not with ourselves, but with God because His purposes, and His purposes for us, are ultimately what matters. We must begin, not by looking inward, or outward, but upward. We must begin, not by examining our own thoughts or speculations, or by considering human history, art, and literature. Instead, we must begin by listening to the voice of God recorded in the Scriptures. And here is what they tell us:
"But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. " – Psalm 33:11 "The LORD has made everything for his own purposes" – Proverbs 16:4

We did not bring the universe into being. We did not make ourselves. We did not design ourselves. God designed us; He made us. He is the creator. And therefore, only He knows what he created us for. Only He knows what he had in mind when he brought you and I, and all of this, into existence.

Since God made us, then, our goal should be to understand, and become, what he has made us to be. Our objective should be to discover, and to live out, his purposes for us as His creatures. Only then will we find real fulfillment.
It may surprise you to know that God had in mind a plan and a purpose for you long before you ever arrived on this planet. In fact, even before the world was created, he knew what he wanted to accomplish in and through your life. Whether or not you were aware of it; whether or not you even cared; God had a plan for you from the very beginning.

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. . . In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" – Ephesians 1:4, 11

In other words, you were not an accident! You were not a mistake! Whatever the circumstances of your birth may have been; whether or not your parents planned for you to be born; God was not taken by surprise. He’s been waiting for you, and looking forward to you, for a very long time. He has plans for you, and he intends to bring them to pass. You in God’s mind and heart from eternity past, but he made you to last forever, into eternity future. And that means that God’s good purposes for your life do not end at death.


First, because there’s more to reality than what we see around us. This life is not all there is. At best, we may have seventy, eighty, or a hundred years on this earth. Our life here is temporary. "LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away." – Psalm 39:4. Our actions have consequences, not only for the present, but for the life to come. Therefore, we ought to be the kind of people who live every day in light of eternity.

Another way to look at this is to see our lives as a stewardship, as something which has been entrusted to us temporarily, but which does not really belong to us. Someday, God is going to call us to account for how faithful we have been in discharging our responsibilities. And so it behooves us to understand as best we can what he expects of us, what his plans and purposes for our lives are. Do you remember the parable of the talents?

 Second, we should seek to know and follow God’s purposes because the alternative is to waste our time; either living a purposeless, meaningless life, or spending our days running after the wrong things; or perhaps being driven along by emotions or circumstances. Yes, we can do that. We can float along aimlessly. We can try to do what we think is best, without any reference to God’s purposes. We can simply react to what we experience as best we know how. But the Bible calls all of those approaches "foolish," because the only actions which have any lasting value are those which are in harmony with God’s purposes. In Ephesians 5:17, we read:

"Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do." – Ephesians 5:17.

Are you doing that? Are you guiding your life by the compass of God’s Word? Living according to God’s purposes gives our lives clarity, and focus, and direction. Everything else is just a foolish waste of time.

God has a wonderful plan and purpose for your life.