You are not an accident!

Introduction

'Purpose Driven Life' has become one of the leading read books. It has touched the thinking of both young and old within Lightbowne Evangelical Church.

What on earth am I here for? - You are not an accident.

Read Psalm 139 v1-18

Not me!

All of us have dreamt at one stage in our lives of being someone else. Most of us have done so in our childhood. We wanted to be spacemen, firemen, pop stars or a hero, the smooth talking James Bond type of character or stand centre stage with the applauds of others cheering us on as we put the winning goal into the back of the net to clinch the World Cup.

Then we grew up and put away such childish ideas, or did we? Sadly so many of us are not happy with who we are, and want to be like someone else and no longer do we aim so high. but sometimes we wish that we were as popular as our best friend, or look as good as them.

We wish we did not have to be ourselves all the time but somehow we could change our personality to be more confident, or change our physical appearance so that we could become more acceptable. So often we live lives that we don't like because we cannot accept who we are, we want to change ourselves into something or someone else.

Detailed design

I want to tell you that everything about you is no accident, when you were born God planned every little detail about you. Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it. Long before we were thought of or conceived by our parents, we were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of us first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that we are breathing at this very moment. Something we take so much for granted in Psalms 138, the one before our main reading, it says this in verse 7

'Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me. The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me'.

Rick Warren in his book said God prescribed every single detail of our bodies. He deliberately chose our race, the colour of our skin, our hair, and every other feature. He custom-made our body just the way he wanted it. He also determined the natural talents we would possess and the uniqueness of our personality.

Now I have some trouble with that and hopefully so do you. Because the world we are living in, is a world where not everything goes according to God's plans. Not because he is not all powerful and he does not get the time to dot his i's and cross his t's and so things fall through the cracks; but because of another universal law that lives alongside his constant love for us... this other universal law is God's law of free choice.

Choice and effect

Within our freedom of choice God has allowed us to choose what is right and what is wrong. Within these choices we make there are consequences. When mankind first chose to rebel against God, their choice affected everything else that God had created. Not only did sin come into God perfect world, and as I said before we can translate the word sin with the word selfishness. Because of our sin and selfishness we find ourselves being hurt and hurting one another.

Not only was mankind affected but the whole of creation also, the world around us was affected to. No longer are we living in a world that God had planned for us. The best way I can explain it is when mankind first rebelled against God, it was like an accident that happened on the north bound carriage of a motorway. We were not directly involved in the rebellion but we feel the knock-on effects. What happens when there is a serious accident, what occurs? It forms a tailback, you might be several miles down the road but you are affected by it. The same is true for us, though we were not involved in the original rebellion against God, we to feel the effects of it.

What happens on the south bound carriageway, when you see an accident on the other side, that side also feels the effect, as people start rubbernecking and so once again the other side of the motorway starts to feel a knock on effect even though none of them were involved. The same is true with nature, it did not rebel against God but it was affected by mankind's rebellion and this is why our world is out of step with God's original plan. We live in a world where there is suffering, sickness, disease, natural disasters and death. A world that God did not intend for us to experience.

Work in progress

When people say to me that it is God's will that a child is born with a disability; this is so offensive, for what sort of loving God would inflict physical disability upon a child let alone anyone else. Later on in life, people often think that it is God who gives us cancer or some other disability or disease, but what sort of image of God do we have? You might want to argue with me and say if God is so loving and wants the best for us, why does he not take away all suffering?

Good question, if he chose to do that today, which he could do, it would mean he would have to deal with the root cause of suffering and that would mean dealing with the rebellion of mankind - what the Bible would call judgement day... Is God just sitting back doing nothing until then? Not at all. Our rebellion did not take God by surprise but from that very moment God has been redeeming, restoring things to his original plan.

God does not want anything bad in our lives, God does not want us to suffer. How do I know this? Well it was not part of God's original plan. And if you look with me at the end of the Bible something that God is moving towards we see God restoring that original plan.

The book of Revelation says (21:4) 'God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or morning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.' God is in the process of restoring us and creation back to his original plan.

At present we are not the perfect packages that God intended us to be, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually; because of live in a world that is out of step with God, a world that has been spoilt by sin, we too are out of step with God.

But God is not sitting back just letting events take their course, God is redeeming our lives if we let him.

The reason

Has there been something in your life that has been distorted by sin or the effect of sin on nature - you have a disability but God has used that for our good; the good of others and for the glory of God?

From our reading in Psalm 139, it says that God knows everything about our lives... Such knowledge of us started even before we were born and God was working out his best intentions for us. Parents do it; they have plans for their unborn children of what they want them to be; so why can't God not get in on the act? The writer of our reading recognised this and says at end of v16 'All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be'.

Today there are many illegitimate parents, however there are no illegitimate children in God's eyes. Many children are unplanned and unwanted by their parents, but they are not unplanned and unwanted children by God. God's purpose for our lives took into account human error, and even human sin that has affected so much of our lives and the world around us. God took into account all that and created us to be a special unique package. God never does anything accidentally, and he never makes mistakes. He has a reason for everything he creates. God's motivation for creating us was his love.

The Message Bible puts a complicated verse from Ephesians 1:4 very simply when it says, "Long before he laid down earth's foundation, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love." God was thinking of us before he made the world. In fact, that is why he created the world! God originally designed this planet for our enjoyment. Out of all the things God made, we are the focus of God's love as the most precious and valuable of all his creation. Why did God do all this? Why did he bother to go to all the trouble of creating a universe for us? Because he is a God of love. He loves us. This kind of love is difficult to fathom, but it's fundamentally reliable. We were created as special objects of his love! God made you and me so he could love us. This is a truth to build our life upon.

Moving on

Charles H Cooley, one of the most prominent social scientists of our time developed a concept called the 'looking-glass effect.' Cooley's idea goes like this: a person's self-concept is established by what he or she thinks the most important people in his or her life thinks of him or her. Who is the most important person in your life, what do they think about you... For this will shape the way you will think about yourself. When God becomes the most important person in our lives this will change the way that we look at ourselves, for God thinks you are the best thing since sliced bread...

The Bible tells us, 'God is love'. It does not say God has love, but that He is love! Love is the essence of God's character. God says 'I have carried you since you were born; I have taken care of you from your birth. Even when you are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair has turned grey, I will take care of you. I made you and will take care of you' Isaiah 46:3-4 (NCV).

In summary

If there was no God, we would all be accidents, a fluke of nature. There would be no meaning for our lives, no purpose or significance. There would be no right or wrong, and no hope beyond our brief years here on earth. But there is a God who made us for a reason, and our lives have profound meaning! We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives. Not only do all things start with God but they find their meaning within Him as well. The message Bible paraphrases Romans 12:3 and says 'The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us.' God is love and that love is directed towards us.

Ponder on 'I am not an accident'

Read Psalm 139

Question to consider: Knowing that God uniquely created me, what areas of my personality, background, and physical appearance am I struggling to accept?