Glorifying God and Enjoying Him Forever

I am most certainly not prepared to say that I have acted, or even, am now acting, up to my own principles; still, I am not bragging in saying that I have probably felt their value more than many people nearer to genius than I am. —Ernest Dimnet

Something I learned, or, I should say; God taught me, about six months ago was the importance of discovering my compassion. What I first was enlightened with was the importance of finding ones God-given compassion. When God created each of us, he implanted a unique, yet, dormant fire in our very essence. This fire, this uniqueness is our compassion, expressed in our God-given talents. Just as our individual DNA is unique to us and us alone, so our compassions are singular in that while two persons might share a similar compassion, the compassion is uniquely expressed in each individual.

Secondly, I came to see that compassion is something that each of us has to discover. God does not give us any predetermined idea as to what compassion he has given us. He leaves finding our compassion up to us. Besides, that is what the mystery of life is all about. Some are perplexed as to what man’s destiny and his purposes are. I believe the Westminster Catechism poses the question best in its first Catechism: “What is the chief end of man?” The answer given is that man’s chief end is to “glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Wonderful, isn’t it? That says absolutely everything by telling us absolutely nothing. It gives us an answer without giving us any way as how to actually accomplish that goal, that singular purpose. I see this answer as an open door. An opportunity blown wide open to interpretation. For the sake of this piece, I would argue that each individual’s way of “glorifying God and enjoying him forever” is to find out what his compassion is. Follow my logic. God created everyone with a hidden compassion. Now wouldn’t it be glorifying God the most if we each sought, out with all our might, that individual compassion that he has given us? If we pursue, with everything we have, to find what he created us to be; wouldn’t that be glorifying to God, wouldn’t that be enjoying him and our God-given purpose?

I believe that this is exactly what we as Christians need to do. We need to re-evaluate where we are in this life. How many of us are truly happy? If you are not happy then evaluate where you are in life; and even those of us who believe we are happy…should ask ourselves questions like:

• Did I go to college because that is where God called me?
• Or did I go because my parents said that is the only place where you will make something out of yourself.
• Or did I go because society conditioned me to be complacent, maybe it was a comfortable job with a nice salary.

The conclusion I came to is if we do not discover our compassions then we are missing the many opportunities that God has given us to bless others with our compassions and gifts.