Those who reject a God of any kind must believe there is no
grand design in life, no master plan, that everything that occurs is simply a
matter of random chance and the decisions of others. The consequence of believing in evolution and
random chance as our genesis denies us purpose and meaning in our lives. If your existence is merely random, your
consequence cannot be significant.
You could argue that even under a random genesis people like
Hitler and Gandhi both impacted our world, one for good, and one for evil. But if both are a product of mere chance, why
is either significant? Either one could
have not ever existed, or once coming into existence, either one could have
made different choices that radically altered the course of our history. And now that they are both clearly dead, if
only a product of mere chance, their legacy is negligible at best. Evil remains in the hearts of Neo-Nazi’s, and
many other hate groups who use Hitler as their motto or hero. And pacificism is all but dead in the world,
leaving Gandhi’s legacy in steep decline at best. In another 2000 or 3000 years their memories
may be long forgotten; perhaps like king Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonian
empire from long ago.
But with belief in our Creator God, both purpose and meaning
return to our lives in concert with a master plan, not just for our world or
our existence, but with the existence of all life in the universe. This is where the concept of a Mosaic best
fits the pictures of our lives today. On
ABC’s new hit series “Flash Forward”, the central plot premise is that the
entire world passes-out for 2 minutes 17 seconds and each person has a vision
of themselves in the future. The global
fainting causes much death and destruction, and the US agency investigating the
phenomenon, creates an online project called “Mosaic” where anyone can post
their stories or visions online and check them against others to form an
overall picture of this time in the future.
The beauty of a Mosaic is that you cannot get the big
picture without enough of the little tiny images that comprise it. Pull out 30% of the pieces and the grand
design fades. Nor can any small tiny
image claim to be a representation of the overall big picture, it takes many
small images in order to construct the bigger one. It is a balance that you find in all of God’s
created works. Each image is important
to the overall creation, but only as it sits in harmony with the others. The beauty of how our God creates is the
level of uniqueness He incorporates in each tiny piece. Each of us is unique in our appearance, DNA,
fingerprints, retinal scans, and frankly in our characters. Each person created to be a part of his
master Mosaic design. Each person a tiny
representation of the whole. Each
person, needed to fit in a particular place, a particular role, in order for
the master design to take shape.
So what happens to God’s master plan when those He created
refuse to be a part of his Mosaic? I
believe He raises another, or gives another person an opportunity to take up
the missing role. But even in this, He
does not simply create a replica of the last person who rejected His
calling. He does not deny our
individuality simply because we refuse to play in His symphony. The uniqueness of the person who rejects His
calling perishes with that person. But
the role they were meant to fill, might go to another. The new person who accepts this calling will
not accomplish it in the same way as the one who rejected it. Our differences prevent this. But the overall mission, the overall design,
will go forward.
In Adventism, in our early church history, God saw the need
to make a personal connection with a believer to relay His guidance to the
specific questions of the day. It was
His intention to guide and affirm our beliefs through His miraculous power, and
through an expression of His love through volumes of written testimony. The first two people He called on for this
responsibility both rejected the calling, though they remained believers. I imagine they feared the ridicule that
always accompanies anyone who dares to testify for God. I imagine they both had lives they did not
want to give up or put away in favor of writing, witnessing, and counseling
those in desperate need. I imagine they
had many “good” reasons to refuse God’s work.
And so they did.
Had the first person accepted the call, our church would
have a different Patriarch than the one we remember today. The style would have been different. The language may have been different. He may have accomplished more than his
counterpart, or perhaps less as men died generally earlier than women
overall. But he did not accept this
calling. Perhaps he did not even believe
it to be real. Until at a meeting a
young 16 year old girl stands up and states that God has given her a message to
relay to the world. Then the first man
called realizes the reality of his calling, and so does the second. They both stood and testified as such. And God’s purpose went forward in the least
likely of vessels – a girl – with only a sixth grade education and significant
physical health problems from her youth.
But most Adventists today know the name of Ellen G. White, formerly Ellen
Harmon.
God’s plan will go forward, the only question is what role
we play within it. The story of Ellen
White illustrates that no role is dictated by God, it is only offered by
Him. We must accept what He offers in
order to do the work He would have us to do.
Jonah chose to run away from His calling, but Nineveh needed to be
saved. Eventually Jonah changed his
mind. Moses ran away too. He tended sheep for forty years, but
eventually returned to the role God had in mind for him. Sometimes God pursues those who at first
reject His calling. Sometimes He does
not. But each one is offered a role, and
each one must make a decision of what they will do with the offer. Have you thought about your own? What role do you play in God’s Mosaic?
God is not one dimensional either. As God exists on many levels, perhaps more
than our finite minds are capable of understanding, so His purposes for us
extend to many different areas of our lives.
He may have a role for us to play within His church, within our community,
within our immediate families, and within the brotherhood of man for centuries
to come in His perfect kingdom we call heaven.
Just like you are capable of more than one emotion, God may have
designed you with more than one purpose in mind for His Mosaic. But it is the whole of your life He is
looking to affect, to make better, to free from pain, and to fit in His unique
designs.
Those that have no purpose, have no hope. For your life to have meaning, it is
necessary to understand the intent behind your genesis. You became a living soul because God decided
to breathe one into you. Forgetting the
conditions of your birth, your existence upon entering the world marks a new
opportunity in the Mosaic God has designed, one in which you can play a vital
role. Not everyone need be recognized as
a hero, to impact our world. Some folks
will take on enormous public responsibility (pray for those folks), some will
live only quiet lives of selfless service (pray to be those folks), but all
carry a purpose within our Mosaic.
If you don’t know yet where you fit into God’s plan, perhaps
you should start asking Him. However one
thing I have learned in my own life, and from seeing the lives of Moses, Jonah,
and many others – it is always better to be following the will of the Lord,
than trying to do your “own thing”. I do
not know what ever happened to the first two men who rejected God’s call in our
early church history, but I will bet they regretted that decision for many
years. I will bet they went to their
graves wondering “what if”. It is one
thing not to know what God wants for us yet, it is another to know it, and
refuse it. I pray we all accept whatever
God intends for us, and even more that we begin to want what He wants, and
learn to see His Mosaic through His eyes …
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