The Question

What do I really want to do with my life?

This question has haunted me ever since I graduated in college. Or maybe even earlier than that but it was only then that the inner voice couldn’t be drowned out by the noise around me any longer.

What a fitting time for me to think about it again, now that I have nothing to do but wait.

To some, it may be a bit silly... Asking such a question when I should know the answer already.

If only our purpose in this world was given to us with our birth certificates, then life would definitely be easier. But things don’t usually work that way, don’t they? We have to journey through life with all its pains and pleasures and hope to somehow find some answers.

Being a Christian, I always thought my life would be easier. I don’t know why, but that is what most of the people usually attach Christianity into.

A life of peace and free from trouble. No more suffering. No more tears.

On the contrary, as I walk further into the narrow road, I realize that the opposite is true. I still get colds and flu like the rest. I have to face the same bills at the end of the month. Trials abound. And this time, it even seems a notch harder.

And then the haunting question. What do I really want to do with my life?

Now that I am supposed to have “eternal life”, then what do I really want to do with it? Could it be any more complicated than this?

While the rest of the world ponders on what to do with their threescore and ten existence, I wonder about what to do exactly with eternity.

Most of us tend to think that we will spend our eternity having a religious experience in the sky. Not bad, but I don’t think I would want to do that forever.

This is embarrassing, but frankly, that is far too boring. And thank God, that is not what we will all be going to do.

When our pastors say that we will be worshipping God forever in heaven, surely they don’t mean a long list of songs from hymns to uhm, hillsongs, will be sung. The worship that comes into my mind is the Romans 12:1 kind – the offering of our bodies as living sacrifices being holy and pleasing to God. The worship that goes beyond a song, a beat or a tune. The worship that flows from a life truly surrendered to His Majesty. A life lived in its fullness –as Christ promised.

I read something interesting in the last chapter of Zechariah, when the prophet prophesied of the Day of the Lord. I believe it says something that the walls we have built to separate the secular from the sacred will be no more, for even ordinary things as cooking pots and bells of horses will be holy to the Lord.

Meaning, washing the dishes is no less holy than being on your knees praying. Dancing and singing your heart out in a Sunday service wont be holier than doing the routines in your Monday-to-Friday jobs either.

Going back to the question that started this blog, I know –and it’s funny admitting it- that I haven’t found the answer to that question yet.

I don’t know what to do with my life. I must say.

But my Redeemer is faithful and true. He and his words are one, and I’m sure he will never leave me nor forsake me when He says so.

That for me, is enough to get me through this day.