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The wise king of Proverbs said: “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” I have questions about that! What’s the purpose of a tick? A mosquito? A hurricane? Or a drought?

These are the kinds of questions that theologians and philosophers enjoy debating. I have good friends that are well-educated and can present well thought-out arguments about why and how God has allowed suffering and his purposes for everything. I can listen for a while and then I am ready to move on, putting these questions in the category of “I am not God, but I trust him even when I don’t understand”.

I do want to think about the idea of purpose. And in particular, what it is like to live on purpose and with purpose. At the end of Ecclesiastes, we find words that help us understand our purpose: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Is this a clue to help us understand our purpose in life? If we accept that we are created in the image of God and have been given the stewardship of the earth as the psalmist says, then it seems reasonable to accept that when we revere God and keep his commandments, we will indeed be living on purpose and with purpose.

For most of us it takes time and experience to finally get to the moment when we realize that apart from God, we can do very little. But when we surrender our lives to our creator and Savior, then we discover that God can and will use us to accomplish his purposes in the small spaces where he calls us to serve. I say small spaces, because even those who seem to run large businesses, ministries, or even countries are only involved in a minuscule piece of God’s vast universe. Yet even the ones of us who may live alone and have only the resources for today can be used by God to touch lives in ways that might bring redemption and health to many. What is the power of one widow’s prayer? What happens when one person shares the gospel with another?

When we surrender our wills to the Lord and allow him to direct our paths, we discover what the apostle Paul told the Ephesians: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” When we submit our lives to Jesus, we discover that we are his glorious workmanship whom he uses to bring his renewal and restoration plan to those small spaces where we live, and by his grace and his power he literally changes the world for his glory.

You have a purpose that has been ordained by God. When we choose to follow God’s plan on purpose, we discover that he will equip us and sustain us until he has completed his good work in us and through us, and we meet him face to face in glory.