Made For This

Last Tuesday night I was in Chicago with some of our high school and college folks on a trip to serve some of our missionaries. We spent the whole day serving... working in the hot sun on people’s houses who needed help, and then we went to Mission:USA’s weekly service called “The Bridge.” Our kids welcomed and met folks who had spent their lives on the streets and in jail. They listened to their stories and worshiped God with them. When the service was almost over, our kids slipped out of the back door and got ready to serve them all dinner. They served, talked to and prayed with folks they had never met and they had the time of their lives. Shortly after we arrived back in Tennessee one of the moms of a kid who went told me that her daughter had not stopped talking about The Bridge. She said it was the greatest trip of her life!

Now, I knew that hauling it up to Chicago, seeing the sights and loving on folks up there was going to be a fun trip for these kids, but it was much more than that… some of these kids have been snow skiing every winter and on the beaches every summer. They’ve been to Europe and Asia and had all kinds of amazing experiences and yet going to a little church in a rough neighborhood in a big city to serve up fried chicken and hang out with ex-offenders was the best trip of their lives… What is up with that?

Well, after we served at The Bridge, I asked the kids to answer some questions by writing about the experience they had and here are some things that were written on those pages… “I loved it. I felt like we were doing what we were intended to do.” “You just feel right at The Bridge.” “Serving and praising are the only two times I find myself letting go of me” “Serving comes so easy, not like work… like that’s how it’s supposed to be… like we were made that way.” “It’s amazing to serve, there is nothing like it… I felt like I was flying.” “I felt free… I know I always want to do this” “My heart was overflowing with love for those brothers… I wish we could go every week.” “It’s an incredible feeling to put others before yourself, because that’s how God intended us to be.” “God taught me that I was made for something much greater than myself…”

In Psalm 4 the Lord asks, “How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?” See, the reason those kids would call this 'the trip of their life' is because they were so incandescently happy. They were happier in Chicago with thugs from the halfway house than they’ve ever been soaking up the sun in Hawaii or hitting the slopes in Aspen. Why, because we were made to know God, to love Him and to share His love by caring about people and serving them selflessly. God programmed us in such a way that if we realize the purpose of life, we’re happy. If we don’t, or if we focus on stuff we weren’t made for, we’re not happy… How long will we love delusions and seek false gods?

In verse 7 of Psalm 4 David says to the Lord, “You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.” We were made for God and to be used by Him. When we live there, we are filled with the assurance and satisfaction of fulfilled purpose. When we spend all our energy, time and resources on ourselves, we become miserable and confused. Our kids found themselves in Chicago. They found that they were made to love and serve Jesus and they absolutely loved it. It was the trip of a lifetime because they discovered what life is really about. Are you happy? And if the answer is no, is there a good reason why you’re not?