endev42 - documenting the meaning of life

Purpose: What is the Meaning & Therefore Motivation of Life?

By Olympic Champion Ben Peterson 

This is an important question for all thinking people to consider.

Family, Team, Community, Personal advancement do get us started, but is there more?

Since everything in my home has: 1) a designer and 2) a maker, it seems reasonable to conclude that the most sophisticated thing in my home must also have a designer and maker. Mankind is an incredible invention. The One who designed and made us must be amazing. I will never claim to know everything about that Designer/Maker. But someone greater than me is responsible for designing and making me. I can't help but understand a mastermind was behind creation.

My designer must have had a plan for me. We make things for a purpose. Why would the Creator not do the same? We do all kinds of things and there's a purpose behind them. I do things for myself and for others. So, my designer must also have had a plan for me. He certainly made me to enjoy things, to help others and He also must have made me for His own enjoyment.

Soi ask, "What is the greatest meaning and purpose to life?" My answer is to honor my Creator. There are many ways for me to do that. There are physical ways like athletic achievement. There are mental ways of doing things where I can learn, think & discipline my mind. And I can be motivated in my spirit and guide my actions in ways that please Him. I find these thoughts very motivating and a source of definite stability. It has given me purpose and a cause bigger than myself. I call that motivation to honor God. So, I live out honoring God in my family, with others who honor Him, at school and work, in my community, the teams I am a part of, and more.

My brother, Olympic Champion John Peterson, learned his value and confidence when he saw he was of value in God's eyes even before he ever won anything. He is of value because God made him with value and proved it by sending His Son to die for his sin. John made that thought personal. He did not need to earn that value. God made him valuable. Then he could relax and enjoy and excel in the game of wrestling and in life.

My feelings kept getting in the way of my confidence in Jesus Christ. If things were going well, I felt good and confident about myself, If not, I lost confidence. An older friend that knew scripture told me to take God's promises as my confidence. I put my name in the "whosoever" of John 3:16; 5:24 and Roman 10:9, 10&13. Claiming promises of our maker are invaluable.