Who are we? What is the purpose of Life?

Each one of us is a precious individual Life given by God's divine love. Each Life is individual identity, consciousness, love, will and activity expressing briefly through a mortal body.

To abuse your life is to use it selfishly, by pursuing greed and self-aggrandissment, to take and claim as your own more than your share of the communal assets entrusted to you by God.

To waste your life is to choose a life of laziness, of inaction, of adopting easy alternatives instead of using your will to achieve goals of assisting others.

To glorify life is to recognise and accept your individual place in the universe, your minor (but important) position as co-creator on Earth. Our world is a garden:- if ignored, the garden grows wild dominated by the law of survival of the most aggressive and most greedy. If the garden is tendered with loving wisdom, we must each live a life of loving service, encouraging, nurturing and serving every individual. To glorify life, we must each work individually but in unison to paint the greatest and most harmonious canvas of all- a beautiful world at peace, vibrant with sparkling and joyful humanity. This will happen as an ever increasing proportion of humanity live as Jesus did- with loving and attentive kindness, and wise activity. This is the immediate and practical purpose of our lives that we must concentrate on.

The purpose of our lives does not end at our mortal deaths as the Bible says the life of our souls is everlasting. But as we are alive on Earth, it is the spiritualisation of our Earth environment in all its aspects, including ourselves, which we can act upon with controlled diligence.

Our pathway through life is the on-going result of our choice of actions for self or others, or inaction. It is not dictated by any other. In living we continually create happiness or sadness by the way we choose and act.

Our happiness and sadness, reward and loss, are not set by events. They are personal emotions we perceive by our attitudes and choice. Unfortunately our society brainwashes us to adopt false emotions and hence wrong motivations and the world's people are generally very excessively selfish. Most Westerners would believe they would get great happiness from winning large prizes from a lottery or casino. A true Christian may not; he might avoid it as an earthly distraction diverting him from his life of service to others.

Our attitudes are the result of how we digest all our perceptions. The assimilation of attitudes, morality and spirituality follow the principals of education- that which we observe most of, we adopt. A child becomes the parent he observes, not what the parent says. The TV addict or video gamer often adopts the selfish hedonistic and indulgent behaviour so common in TV characters.

For most who are morally weak and without strong spiritual convictions, we become what we associate with, be it

bad (or good) playmates at school,

good singers and kind servers in a Christian community, or

a smoker, drinker and gambler in a casino.

Some concluding advice:

clarify your beliefs and experiences by regularly writing them down and thinking about them (keep a diary for this purpose).

recognise the strengths and weaknesses of your faith, and live by this knowledge i.e., if you are weak willed, avoid bad company.

choose your TV programs, friends, social company and church best suited to developing you as a spiritual person. (Ask yourself "Would Jesus like me to watch this film? Is it uplifting? Is it worthwhile, or just a distraction?")

your free will given by God is entirely your responsibility, so direct your actions for the communal good, i.e. for the good of your self, your family and others.

measure your worth by the hours of your service to others, not by your accumulation of clothes and other possessions.

when disappointed or confused, trust God and be cheerful. Your happiness (or sadness) is infectious. It is best to choose to be happy.

be a giver, not a taker. Take only your needs and do not be a glutton.

As one grows, perspective alters with the degree of enlightenment. Be prepared for such changes, so do not be attached to old belief systems. For example, I once thought the following were true-

And that the opposite is also true-

I now realise the above perspective was from scarcity consciousness and not true. God's power and methods are infinite, and mind boggling. For example, our Fijian church minister recently told us how, when he was at Bible college, his total income was $2 per week and he was once troubled as he needed soap to wash his clothes and toothpaste. He prayed steadilly then fell asleep and dreamt a slip of white paper drifted down and landed beside him. It was a blank cheque and it was signed "Jesus". He awoke and phoned the church head office and the secretary said, I am glad you phoned, a businessman wanted to talk to you, he wants your bank account details as he wants to give you $50 per month. This he did.

Other recent daily miracles reveal there are deeper realms and truth than I ever would have imagined. For example, one day as I drove to work I was listening to a tape with a discussion on Judas, then I suddenly realised the car I was following had the number plate JUDA.

(an essay by JF 26Jan95 updated 2Aug02)