What On Earth Am I Here For? Series

Sitting on the beach on an island in the middle of nowhere with 19 other people who wished you weren’t there. And all you can think is “What on Earth am I Here For?” It wasn’t that long ago that life was different, more comfortable more fun and now all you have is the island, your “Team” mates and your desire to survive, and the burning question, why? Why am I here what do I hope to accomplish, will it make any difference in the end.

I’m pretty sure that at some point during the 39 days that the contestants of survivor spent on the Cook Islands many of them felt those very emotions. They didn’t belong where they were, you might even say they were strangers in a strange land. But they were all there for a purpose. You might even say it was 39 Days of Purpose.

Early believers were told by Peter in 1 Peter 2:11 Dear brothers and sisters, you are foreigners and aliens here. For those of us who are Christ followers this isn’t where we belong, Jesus acknowledged that when he was praying for his followers in John chapter 17 when he said John 17:16 They are not part of this world any more than I am.

We may be feeling a little more comfortable here then the 4 tribes are on the Cook Islands but we are still in a place that we don’t really belong, and we are here for a set period of time. It may we shorter then we think, the obituaries in the paper are full of people who I’m sure thought they’d be here a little longer. Or maybe you’ll be here longer then you expect. A wonderful friend of ours who attends our afternoon service turned 100 last Monday. Think about it, she was eight when the First World War broke out, 33 when Canada entered the Second World War. She was eligible to collect CPP when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and probably if you had of asked Agnes through her life if she was going to live to be a hundred that wouldn’t have been her plan. Personally I hope to live a few more years yet but if I make it to a hundred it will come as a surprise.

But here we are, this is where we live, this is where we work and love and raise our families, so the question is “What on Earth am I Here For?” And if we are going to be spiritual survivors that is the question that has to be answered. And in order to answer that question there are a couple of other questions that have to be asked and answered.

Jeremiah 20:18 Why was I ever born?

1. Question of Existence: Why Am I Here? I am sure that there are times that some of the contestants on survivor wondered that very thing. What am I doing here? Why am I here? It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, an easy road to fame and a million bucks. After all how tough can it be, Richard won it the first time. But now, being there is a different story. Things aren’t easy, the food’s horrible and nobody likes you. You kind of feel like author Arthur Ashley Brilliant who said “My life has a superb cast, but I can’t figure out the plot.”

Well, the cast on survivor are there because they were chosen. I know that they wanted to be on the show but so did a pile of other people. They auditioned for the show and they were chosen, they were chosen to do something, there was a purpose for them being there. Ultimately they were there because they had been chosen to fulfill that purpose.

Their purpose is to win a million dollars, the producers of the show have a different purpose and that is to make millions of dollars. But regardless if there was no purpose to the show it would never get made. If you told the contestants we want you to go to an isolated place with 19 other people, you will live in isolation and deprivation, you will take part in strange events and at the end of 39 days you will go home, there probably wouldn’t be that many takers. And we probably wouldn’t watch a show like that and because of that it would never get made.

In the same way we have been chosen and we didn’t even have to audition. Every person on earth is here not by accident but because they were put here to achieve something. You are no accident, your life is not meaningless you are here for a purpose. And you know that, you may not know what your purpose is but you do know that you have a purpose.