the meaning of life

this photo has nothing to do with the topic at hand really. maybe the bridge represents trust?

While doing a Spanish language Bible study on the book of Philippians with a group of women recently, we discussed a great metaphysical question: what is the fundamental goal of your life? At first everyone stared blankly at one another, because how do you sum up that age old question, "what is the meaning of life?" in one sentence?

A little background: In Philippians 3, Paul counts all the reasons that if anyone on earth could have earned salvation, it would have been him. A Pharisee, Roman citizen, a Hebrew of Hebrews from the tribe of Benjamin, with a zeal for God and rules. But he counts all of those earthly achievements and privileges as loss, because a reliance on them means less reliance on God. So instead, the fundamental goal of his life was sharing in the sufferings of Christ, sharing the gospel, and ultimately heaven. 

Achievements on earth are awesome. Many times we achieve something because we dedicated a lot of time and effort. Many times they validate that we are doing something worthwhile. 

But there are 2 important things to ask when we strive after earthly success:

1. Is this helping me become the person I want to be? (refer back to: what is the fundamental goal of your life?)

2. Am I relying on something more than God? (myself, my talents, my education, money, another person, technology, etc.)

Paul counted his successes as loss, as failure, as nothing, because they were nothing in comparison to who God is and what he has done for us. 

As we begin this week, let's go about our daily tasks with our trust in the Lord. Let's look to him first, and not as a last resort. And let's keep in mind our ultimate goal.