I am not alone in what I'm feeling.
This is for certain.
I am not the only one who longs for that special “someone, somewhere” with whom to share my life and mission.
No! There are many—millions, perhaps, even, billions—who feel EXACTLY what I’m feeling in this very moment.
I am not alone, either, amongst those who ARE married, but who feel as though they are in a love-less or love-starved marriage. Even though I am not married, I know what it is like to love someone who does not really love you in return. Or who is incapable of loving you in return. These things are not, by the way, written from a place of bitterness; in fact, they come from a place of healed brokenness.
To love and to be loved back. These are huge, if not Grand Canyon-sized, life-defining, hungers that live and breathe within all of us. And while God is the Author and Satisfier (ultimately) of those very hungers, that’s not what I want to focus on at this point in my thoughts.
The “Chief End of Man"
Why am I here? Why are you here?” What is our purpose? These are the seminal questions of existence, are they not?
The "chief end of man," as the Westminster Confession of Faith so boldly proclaims, “is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” I ascribe to this notion…completely. God is a God of joy, and I believe, as John Piper writes, that we were created to bring glory to Him by and through our deep enjoyment of Him. By the way...If you've never read Desiring God, by John Piper, I recommend picking up a copy (http://www.desiringgod.org/) and reading it. It truly is a fabulous, paradigm-shaping book.
What I wish to write of below may seem a little controversial, but it really isn't. I just think it goes a little against the grain of how we in the west tend to view salvation (e.g., as primarily a "personal, individual" thing). And, while I don't seek to be controversial (purely for controversy's sake), sometimes being a little controversial (or, at least, not trying to avoid it) can be a good thing, don't you think?
Okay...so here we go...
We, as God's creation of human beings, were not created primarily to individually glorify God through our individual enjoyment of Him. Even though that really is the chief end of each created man's existence, I believe it to be penultimate to an even greater "end"—to that which I think God had in mind originally and that, I believe, He intends to fully experience and enjoy ultimately.
[BTW…for those of you in what has become a very supportive reading audience that have some difficulty with writing that includes split infinitives and sentence-ending prepositions, please allow me to apologize beforehand for intentionally writing in such a manner from time to time. Even though I would like to encourage you to consider allowing yourself to expand your comfort zone with such things, I'm not going to even suggest such a thing. Be just as you are. I will write, though, that the gospel rules (i.e., The Elements of Style, etc.) for writing are not, at times, something that I will “much put up with." Even though I greatly admire Winston Churchill, I respectfully disagree with his fidelity to correctness in this arena. Regarding Mr. Churchill, it is my understanding that he was once heard to have said (to a very irritating person, I would surmise), "Madam...yours in an impudence up with which I will not put." Una que pasa? Ummm...Mr. C?? I believe your verbal pudding has no theme, dude! While I will admit that what Mr. Churchill said was indeed memorable, for most of us, speaking in such a manner will almost always elicit such responses as "Baking Powder?" or "Ex-squeeze me?" or some other such Wayne Campbellism. In my opinion, if an "incorrectly" written sentence reads better than a correctly written one, I'm going to opt for the former—probably 99 times out of a 100. To quote Forest Gump, "And that's about all I have to say about that." Happy reading and listening, y'all! :o)]
Okay...back to the subject at hand...
During the Sixth Day…When All Was Made Good
I think it's time to give Genesis 2:15-25 a second look. What do you think? Agreed? Okay then...
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Even though all that God had made during creation week "was good" (see Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31), during the sixth day there was a time when there was something that was not good: Man in his aloneness. The cool thing I love about this passage is not just God’s saying that it was not good, but Adam’s discovery of the same. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. Can’t you just feel what Adam must have been experiencing? Every creature around him had a mate, except for him. I just find it utterly fascinating (don’t you?) that Adam, through his expression of need, played a role in God’s crowning creative endeavor: The bringing forth of Eve. Could God have created Eve just as He had created the rest of creation? Yep. But He chose not to. Instead, in His great wisdom (see Proverbs 3:19), He wanted Adam to experience his foundational hunger for Eve and relationship and then to experience the wonderful satiation of that hunger when God took Eve from his side and then brought her "back" to him as his mate (or his "life-saver" as the Hebrew implies). Then, and only then, was EVERYTHING good.
I think…and this really is just me thinking…God wanted Adam to feel a little of what He (God) felt: Unfulfilled desire. Adam wanted a help mate; Jesus (who was the Central Figure in the creation story) wanted a bride (a people devoted to Him). Through Adam’s need, Adam was able to identify (ergo, even empathize) with what God was feeling...with what what God had, perhaps, been feeling for all of eternity until THAT very moment. Now, again, this is just me thinking, but how cool is it that you and I can empathize with the feelings of God? I am, again, blown away by God's genuine humility. I want to be with someone, and so does God. Yes...I am definitely NOT alone in my feelings, and neither is God.
The Splitting of the Adam, and the Piercing of the Master
Okay...back to a little more of what I was beginning to write of above...
In the very moment when God brought Eve to Adam, EVERYTHING became good. For creation, for Adam, for Eve, and for God. Adam had Eve, Eve had Adam, Adam and Eve had God, and God (in Jesus) had His bride, the people of His Heart corporate, which, at that point, was comprised solely of Adam and Eve. The seed, though, that would eventually give physical birth to the hundreds of millions who would one day comprise the church was right there in Adam, just waiting to be imparted to Eve. Similarly, the seed of joy (see Hebrews 12:2), which was in Jesus at the cross, was just waiting to be imparted to His bride-to-be. And just as Adam's side was split open (while he slept) to bring forth Eve (Adam's life-saver), so was Jesus' side pierced (at His death) to bring forth His bride (the saved).
All of this is so very profound to me.
The "Chief End of Mankind"
Based on the above, I would like to rewrite the “chief end of man” statement in the Westminster Confession (Warning!! Controversial Writing Being Perpetrated Ahead!! Proceed with Prayerful Caution!!)…
“The chief end of mankind is to, personally and together, glorify God through His great delight in our individual and corporate enjoyment of Him."
Okay…I think it's time for me to go to bed, now. I have much more to write on all of this. Lord-willing, and in the coming days, I will write more of my longings and of your longings and of, perhaps, even God's longings (??) and how all of this fits so perfectly into God’s master plan of goodness in the earth.
Peace to all of you, and good night,
Bling
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