On Being Created

or

Why Am I Here?

For you astute observers, the title is reminiscent of an earlier essay entitled, “On Creation.”  In it, I made the profound conclusion that if there is creation, there must be a Creator. It was in that essay that I slew the dragon of evolution and explained why dogs wag their tales.  For the next few pages, I would like to discuss the fact that since there is a Creator, He must have made something for a purpose.  In 1643, a group of theologians gathered at Westminster Abbey in London and wrote a lot of things¹ (all proof-read by their wives, I am sure) about that purpose.  They liked questions and answers; and one of the bigger questions (thus the term, Larger Catechism) was: “What is the chief and highest end of man?” Well, they took the answer right out of my mouth when they concluded: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully enjoy Him Forever.”

For clearer orientation, this essay is the second in a series of three in which I am attempting to present my worldview using the context of three questions: “Where did I come from,” “Why am I here?” and “Where am I going?”  For the honest post-modern person, the answers are: “I do not know,” “I do not know,” and “I do not know.”  For the Biblical Christian, the answers to those questions are infinitely voluminous and are filled with faith, hope, and love.

Genesis Gets Us Started

 As if the whole Bible were not pesky enough, the book of Genesis is even peskier for modern man and woman. They have to do something with it. Some ignore it as a strange fairytale. Some have even spent years trying to discredit it.  Some (like me) have concluded God can get things started in whatever manner that He chooses.  Part of that conclusion is the simple understanding that He is God and I am not.  This is called sovereignty, and it is sobering because sovereignty requires a Master over a dominion and a dominion to submit to Him.  If only we would realize that God’s sovereignty is full of love for His creation and particularly, for His creatures.

I think that Genesis 1:28 helps in determining “Why am I here.”: “And God blessed them (referring to Adam and Eve).  And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”  I admit that this is very homocentric.  God was extremely satisfied with the pinnacle of His creation of “them” and with His job description for “them.”  Spoiler Alert: Adam and Eve did not agree with that job description; they had a better idea.  Every person since has struggled with that “better idea” versus the “best idea” of how we are to live.

To Glorify

Be patient.  We are getting close to answering the question of “Why am I here?”  I spent my professional career as a physician; but I also knew some engineers, attorneys, mechanics, butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers.  But a career only answers the question of “What do I do?” and in a very limited way, because I was also a son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, and friend.  Now, I agree that a career can be a calling and a provision from God, but the “why” is still there, unanswered.  Who would have thought that a group of men from England in 1643 could help with the answer?

Let’s see if there is a connection between Genesis 1:28 and to the verb, to glorify.  The dictionary (I like dictionaries) defines it as “bestowing honor, praise, or admiration.”²Unfortunately, it left out the word “obedience.”  If there is a God, and if He created, and if man is the pinnacle of His creation, and if God wanted man to do something, then we should do all the dictionary things, but most importantly, we should do what He commands, i.e. obey.  The “subdue” and “have dominion over” of Genesis is a high calling, and we could just stop here.  But the reality is that modern man (and I suspect all that preceded and will follow him/her) have struggled with God’s command and expectation that we are to subdue and have dominion.  Those two concepts make us feel uncomfortable, much like other uncomfortable terms that we would prefer to side-step like leadership, faith, discipline, study, accept correction, and purpose.  The real problem is not so much the thinking that man, because of his being just another animal, has messed things up and will continue to do so, but rather the thinking that God really should have more carefully thought through this. He could have done a better job.

So, the commands to “subdue” and to “have dominion over” are not “animal-phobic” or homocentric; they are theocentric.  We are to discover our role of obedience in this process…the general role of God’s people and the specific role of God’s person.  Quite simply, He wants us to do some divine work.  This is where the enjoyment happens.

To Enjoy

How does one enjoy God? Did I say previously that I like dictionaries? So, here is “enjoy”: “1: to have for one’s use, benefit, or lot.  2: to take pleasure or satisfaction in.”²When one talks of enjoying a p(P)erson, there are a few prerequisites like, like first of all, being introduced,  like learning likes and dislikes, like pleasing, like planning time with, like trusting and being trusted.  Now, I feel a thirteen-week Sunday School lesson coming on, but I will restrain myself and simply say that it is an “en-joy-ment” to know, to love, and to serve the God of Genesis 1:28.  It is an understatement (and maybe bad theology) to say that I have had the very God of creation for my “use, benefit, or lot” or to say that I have taken “pleasure or satisfaction in” Him.  But the believer’s enjoyment in his/her God is that and so much more.

If you know my recent past, you might ask did I (and Nancy, by the way) enjoy chemotherapy, pain, isolation, and getting stuck in various places?  Well, I and she did not enjoy the process in a purely dictionary sense. During that season of our lives, it was not the time to sit and ponder on the wonder of waves crashing, birds flying, mountains soaring, and dogs wagging their tales.  But it was the time to sit and ponder on the wonder of God making us more like Jesus (i.e. His sanctifying us).  I enjoyed getting better, but I more enjoyed the focus on how to better live the life remaining on earth and thus, to better prepare for the life not bound by earth.

If the reader of these twelve hundred or so words is not of faith in the God of creation and of recreation through the work of Jesus, the words will remain just that…words.  But if the reader is honest enough to ask the questions “Where did I come from?” “Why am I here?” and “Where am I going?” he/she might hear a whisper of answers.

So, I know why I am here; I was created and created for a reason.  One small, personal reason is to write these three essays (the third to follow, D.V.).  One large, universal reason is to “glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”

1. The Westminster Confession of Faith, The Larger Catechism, The Shorter Catechism

2. The Meriam-Webster Dictionary