Chapter 2

If someone asks you why you are here, what is your answer?

If you’re like most Christians, the answer would probably be “To glorify God.”

It’s a good answer. A righteous answer.

A vague answer. An answer that can be very hard to define.

So it was that I – who have been a Christian for the majority of my life, 33 years give or take – was surprised on reading this passage. In it I found a clearer image of God’s ultimate plan for my life. Verse 8 tells us that God ultimately plans to put us in charge of everything!

Yes, everything. We are created to RULE THE WORLD.

Funny how these words, written nearly 2000 years ago, still shock.

Maybe it’s because of the undeniable fact that right now WE DON’T CONTROL JACK.

The trouble, as always, is Sin. God created us with the objective of having us rule His world. You may remember that the original blessing to Adam and Eve was “Fill the Earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds of the air and all the living things that move along the ground.”

Amazing – I know that by heart, yet I don’t grasp the implications.

I am accustomed to being powerless. I’m a very small cog in a big gear; one little human in a world that really doesn’t care about me. So it’s a shock to the system to read that I am intended for greatness.

Perhaps it’s even a little painful – when you look at the current scenario and compare it with what God originally had planned, it’s no fun; you can’t help shaking your head and wondering what went wrong.

Even worse, you could be forgiven for thinking that eternity will be much the same. Well, you’ve never experienced anything else; how could you even understand any other life?

Well, it’s time for a shock – but in a good way. God has seen the way things are, and He’s not taking it. He created us to RULE, not serve, and anything less is simply not acceptable.

So how is God going to change things? It doesn’t look like much as things stand!
Well, God’s strategy for changing things is something that sports commentators might call “Brilliantly unorthodox.” Firstly, He has His own Son come to Earth and experience what we’re experiencing. Just as we suffer, HE suffers. He goes through everything we go through (vs 10-13) – including flesh and blood (and all the frailties that go with it) and death (vs 14-15).

This way we could never say that He didn’t know what it was like for us. And our pathfinder went where we could not, creating salvation for us, and in the process He blazed a trail that we could follow.

So where does this help us?

I think it’s a fairly regular part of life to come up against situations where it feels like you’re completely powerless. It’s tough – but when that happens, it’s time to realize that powerlessness, though it is familiar to us here on Earth, is NOT ultimately part of God’s plan. God has you and I in mind as RULERS, not as slaves. So even when it looks like that’s not happening, we need to keep our eyes on Him and keep believing.

I find that it’s much easier to put up with ANYTHING when you remind yourself that it’s temporary, and this is one such case. Powerlessness is temporary, and ultimately God plans to exalt you. Our response should be to be patient and do His work here in the mean time.