Mark Twain said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

Why are you here? What is the purpose of your life?

Joe Barnett recently wrote:

On April 14, 2004, Marine Corporal Jason Dunham dived on a grenade that was lobbed into his squadron near the Syrian border in western Iraq. Dunham died shielding his comrades from the explosion.

If someone sacrificed their life to save yours, you might ask, “Why me? Why am I here?”

Someone did die for you: “When [you] were unable to help [yourself], at the moment of [your] need, Christ died for [you]” (Rom 5:6 NCV). *

When is it that you and I are in the situation that Paul describes: when we are unable to help ourselves, when we are in need?  We are in that hopeless situation because of our sins.  Our sins separate us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2), cause us to be lost, and put us on the path to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).

But because of His great love for us, Jesus died for our sins on the cruel cross of Calvary.  He paid the price for our sins so that we can be redeemed, saved, and have eternal life (Ephesians 1:7; Romans 6:23).

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

If Jesus sacrificed His life to save ours, each of us needs to ask, “Why me? Why am I here?”

Here’s the answer: “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

Why am I here?  It’s not to live for myself: that will lead me away from God and put me on the path to self-destruction.

I am here – and you are here – to live for Christ.  Living for Him brings abundant life now and eternal life to come.

Again: “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

Find your “why” in Jesus.

-- David A. Sargent

* Excerpted from “Why Are You Here?” in Today’s Walk in the Word with Joe Barnett, Pathway Evangelism. April 5, 2023.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

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