This Sunday

This Sunday

“Sometimes I feel that even though I am succeeding, I am succeeding at doing things that don’t really matter.”

My friend chuckled when he said these words but I could tell that it was a serious concern.

Every study about happiness and fulfillment says that a person must have a sense of meaningful purpose in order to feel good about life.  However, most of the demands we put on ourselves shrink our attempts to do something that matters.  Usually a personal crisis is required before we can wake up from the mindless pursuit of what society says we must have, or our kids must have in order to succeed.

Our yearnings for purpose point to the reality that we have been created to participate in the work of God in the world.  More fundamentally, we have been created to know and enjoy God who has a very meaningful purpose to bless and recover the world he made and entrusted to us.

In other words, God invites, or rather calls us to join him.

To what degree is your life defined by God’s purpose?

A quick way to answer that question is to ask another:  Are you linked up with someone with whom you are accomplishing God’s purpose?  If you are married start there, but look beyond your marriage as well.

Do you have a partner or are you on a team that is making the good things of God happen?

At the Gathering Church this Sunday  we look at Acts 15:36-16:5 and see a priority of life that is usually overlooked: the priority of connecting with others in order to accomplish the mission of God.  The passage includes the account of one of the greatest breakups ever and some honest realities of conflict are discovered.

Most likely your place of work or school understands the priority of connecting with others.    You are probably evaluated on how well you connect with others.  One of the highest-profiled firings in the news recently was attributed to this priority when a New York Times editor was released.

What we are doing is not the only key question about our purpose.

With whom are we doing it?