Christianity brings purpose and a sense of belonging to each person's life
As part of my own personal testimony when I was converted to Christ, I quickly developed a new sense of purpose for my life. God has a plan for each life including you and me. Our lives are not accidental, but we can only begin to discover our life’s purpose once we become Christian believers.
Christianity produces a sense of belonging.
Large numbers of people today are lonely, with a Cigna study showing up to 61% of Americans to be lonely. [1]
Our loneliness problems have been compounded by the rise of things such as the impersonal social media, the isolation from the pandemic, and lockdowns etc. There is something in human beings that causes us to want to belong with other humans, in groups, families and other relationships.
The Christian ethos recognizes the human need for belonging as a space that can only be filled by a relationship with God, and this is only possible through belief in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.
Towards the end of his ministry, Jesus prayed,
“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them, and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” (John 17:22-23)
A Christian worldview is founded on the understanding that Jesus made a way for every believer to have a personal relationship with God and thereby to come into unity with other believers.
This is the primary definition of purpose—to know God and to be known by God.
There is a tremendous security in knowing an unconditional love that you do not have to earn. That is a primary difference between how a Christian worldview defines purpose and how a secular worldview defines purpose.
In a secular worldview, you have to earn purpose.
As a Christian, purpose is innate.
Christianity reveals God’s plan for each life which brings security.
How does the Christian worldview describe purpose in this sense?
Well, it starts with the fact that God has a plan for your life.
Psalm 16:5-6: “Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup.
you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.
surely, I have a delightful inheritance.”
Psalm 139:5: “You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.”
God’s overall purpose for humanity includes your life purpose.
A Christian worldview also asserts that God weaves your purpose into His larger purpose for the world. On a grander scale, God’s purpose is to restore a world broken by sin.
Jesus lived out this larger purpose as described in Luke 4:18-19, and you could say that this was Jesus’ manifesto or mission statement.
New Testament scholar N.T. Wright describes this weaving of your purpose into his overall purpose this way:
“What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbour as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom.” [2]
In a Christian worldview, every believer actively participates in God’s universal plan. The result is a deep sense of purpose that nothing else can replace.
Dear Reader, have you already found your sense of belonging and your life's purpose through Jesus Christ ?
Footnotes [1] S. Demarinis https://www.cigna.com/about-us/newsroom/studies-and-reports/combatting-loneliness/ [2] N T Wright in Surprised by hope.