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by Logan Ames

There has been a series of commercials on TV lately for the product known as IRobot. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m pretty much a dinosaur when it comes to technology, but this product looked pretty cool. The product comes in a variety of different models. The commercial shows several models that do various cleaning tasks around the home, one that cleans out your gutter, one that is a computer used in the medical field, and one that is used by law enforcement to check a suspicious package for explosives. These things can do just about anything you need them to do. The relationship between the product and its master is that it has no choice but to do what the master wants. It can’t decide not to complete the task for which it was created and is simply subject to its master’s wishes.

Contrast that with an important scene from the well-known movie “Bruce Almighty.” In this film, Bruce is the character who struggles with believing and trusting in God as he goes through trials in his life. God appears to him and tells him he will have all the powers available to God for a week, since he thinks he can do God’s job better than God. Bruce gets used to his newfound authority, power, and sovereignty and mostly uses it for his own benefit. At the end of his time as “God,” he attempts to win back his girlfriend who has left him. The scene is comical, yet genuine, as Bruce tries unsuccessfully to will his girlfriend to love him. At first, he thinks he can just tell her to do so and she will. When that doesn’t work, he tries casting some weird sort of spell and ends up looking like a buffoon as he reaches out to try to draw her to himself through the air. Bruce’s girlfriend has chosen to leave him and not love him at the time, yet unlike the one true God, Bruce decides to try to force her to do what she doesn’t want to do simply because it is what he desires.

The film is great because it shows us what we would likely do if we were God. However, it also shows a little bit about how God actually feels about us when, at the end, Bruce finally gets it. He loves and values the woman for who she is and desires the best for her regardless of whether she chooses to love him back or not. That is how God feels about you and me. He created us to be in relationship with him. As far as I can tell, this is the only thing that separates us from everything else in creation regarding a response to the Creator. We worship and glorify God, yet so do the rocks if we keep quiet, according to Jesus (Luke 19:37-40). We may help reveal God and certain attributes of his nature to others, but Romans 1:20 declares that his “invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” God certainly doesn’t need us to worship, glorify, or reveal him. He doesn’t NEED us for relationship either, but it is certainly his desire with us and something the rest of creation cannot give.

When I knew I’d be writing on this topic, I randomly asked two co-workers what they think the purpose of life is. Interestingly, both of them are women who basically said “to reproduce.” One of them, however, professes to be a Christian and said that she has often wondered why God would put us down here on earth and give us a chance to mess things up rather than just put us directly in heaven with him. She admitted that she thinks we are here to “pass the baton” to the next generation, but figured things would have been easier if God had just forced us to do things his way. This discussion gave me a chance to explain that God could have done all of this, but that it wouldn’t allow for a true relationship with us. Just like in marriage and other relationships, God does not want robots that are forced to do his will. The only way it is possible for human beings to TRULY love God is if there is an option not to do so. God certainly desires that our love for him be genuine, not forced.

In one of the most oft-quoted passages in the Bible, the Apostle Paul talks about the need for husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church and for wives to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ as its head (Ephesians 5:22-33). Many interpret this passage as a call to intentionally model the relationship between Christ and the church in our marriages. While that interpretation is accurate, I believe it’s incomplete. In v. 31, Paul quotes Genesis 2:24, words spoken of the very first couple to walk this earth. That’d be a pretty good source for the purpose of life! But then in v. 32, Paul says, “This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.” Rather than the passage just being about how we are to behave in marriages, it’s also there to remind us of how God feels about us! He loves us and created us to love him back and experience everything this “marriage” has to offer.

This was risky for God. Desiring a relationship with someone who has an opportunity to refuse it and being willing to give up everything for that person makes one vulnerable to rejection, deception, and infidelity. But it seems to be that God decided before he created us that the reward was worth the risk. You cause God to grieve if you reject him, but you cause there to be “rejoicing in heaven” if you repent from your sins and enter into a relationship with him (Luke 15:7,10). With that much riding on your decision, what else could be the ultimate purpose of your life? If you’ve been seeking a purpose, give a relationship with the One who created you and longs for you to love him back every day that you are alive a chance.