Spiritual Training Cycle: Connection (wk. 4/13)
Everyone wants to know what their purpose is in life. As a tree is meant to provide oxygen, as the sun is meant to give warmth, as a giggling toddler is meant to share laughter, we are all on a pursuit to find purpose and meaning in our own lives. Our pursuit for purpose won’t be truly realized until we find salvation. Salvation is the work God does to move us from death to life. And when you find salvation, it brings with it a new state of peace.
The biblical understanding of peace is wholeness or bringing together what’s broken. For salvation to be true we must first understand what it is that needs to be restored in our lives in order for us to find peace. When we have peace, we can live according to the purpose we were made for.
Think of this in terms of mobility. I never in my life thought I needed to go to a chiropractor until I started weightlifting. My fitness journey had already come with its share of bumps and bruises, but I thought that was just part of the process. I didn’t know I needed help until one eventful workout called Murph.
If you don’t know what Murph is, you should read more about the story. The workout itself is basically made up of a large volume of pull-ups, push-ups, squats, and the best part of all, running. After that day, I literally could not move my arms (I also decided to wear a weight vest for the first time in a long time which didn’t do me any better). That’s when I knew I needed help.
A week later, I decided to go see a chiropractor a friend recommended to me. After our first session, he brought back most of the mobility I had lost in my arms and my shoulder. Since then, we’ve worked together to bring back mobility in my hips and my knees. I was a complete wreck and didn’t know it! Going to a chiropractor monthly greatly improved my weightlifting and helped me to become injury free. Salvation had come to my body, and I was finally at peace.
Salvation came through recognizing the problem, finding the help I needed, and aligning my body back to the function it was meant for. The truth about the spiritual mobility in our lives is that we often don’t realize we need salvation until we are in pain. And even then, we wait until things get worse to start addressing our issues.
It could be the pain of a strained relationship, the pain of poor work/life balance, or the pain of feeling distant from God and hopeless in our current situation. Salvation in Jesus is like mobility for our soul!
The book of Isiah highlights the nation of Israel’s need for salvation after they turned from the Lord their God. God’s plan for salvation was to restore the relationship that was broken between them. The hope was that one day God would send a Servant whose coming would be the arrival of peace, not only restoring the relationship of God and Israel, but restoring us all back to God. He would carry with Him the peace we were purposed for but fail to grasp on our own.
Just as our relationships weren’t meant to serve us but to serve others, and our work wasn’t meant to fulfill us but reflect a life fulfilled by God, our lives weren’t meant to be without God’s peace of salvation. Jesus is the Servant King who gives us His peace so we can have peace with God. A life that is saved is a life lived on purpose with the purpose of knowing the peace we have with God and revealing that peace to the world.
We need not look any further for our purpose in life. Salvation has already come to the world to bring us back to the wholeness we were made for. Salvation is found in Jesus. And His salvation brings a peace we all want but so many have yet to find.
Questions for Reflection:
Where do you need God’s peace in your life?
How do you know if you’re living into God’s purpose for your life or not?