When The World Experienced 33 Years of Purpose

WAS 33 YEARS ENOUGH? To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1

Permit me to begin my paraenesis by asking a question we will mostly dread to hear. If you had 33 years to live would that be enough for you? Well hopefully you can ponder over your answers in the privacy of your heart but I am most certain of someone whose answer would have been an affirmative YES and His name is Jesus Christ. I often wondered how it will be for a man to walk the shores of time knowing his demise was imminent and yet will have the undeniable guts to still pursue purpose in the face of such information. I don’t know how I will manage to put others first by becoming an epitome of love and affection at the same time knowing that I would have to lay down my life at an enjoyable age so as to fulfill my purpose. Humanly speaking, we should be on the same page if you think it doesn’t make sense because it sure doesn't. But yes, that’s exactly what Jesus Christ did. The subject of death must never be observed outside the realms of purpose and mandate, they go hand in hand. I could imagine the headlines in His day going like “YOUNG MAN CLAIMING TO BE GOD GOES HOME IN HIS PRIME". The comfort and cheerfulness with which Jesus spoke about His very short stay on earth was born out of this understanding that the effectiveness of one's life is not determined by how long or short one's life is here in the shores of time, but how much of it managed to make heaven excited and glad.

There are two things common to all men, time and purpose. Time is the framework in which one's purpose is articulated. The product of time begins to lose its value the moment purpose is accomplished. That’s what we then refer to as death which is time that has finally lost its value. Unfortunately, what happens is that we build within this framework called time all the many things that we think in our own right we desire and need. Many of these endeavors usually are self-derived and have nothing to do with God and His purposes for us. By the time we are nearing our expiration, we are saddled with so much regret and pain unlike Jesus who despite being bedeviled with excruciating physical pain and distress left the shores of time in grand style with great peace without any regret. My generation wrongfully, though genuinely, has been thought to equate the worth of a man’s life by how long or how short his age amounts to discarding entirely the discussion about the effect of that life both on the fabrics of time and eternity.

One day in Exodus 3:11 Brother Moses asked God an important question. He said, God , who am I to do all these things you are asking of me to do? This I believe is the greatest inquiry every believer will have to make in order to begin our individual journeys of discovery. It is this question that begins to chart the course of our lives into discovering God's intentions for us. Hebrews 10:7 NKJV puts it this way,‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God. We have to understand that there are volumes of books beyond human time that catalogs every mandate of God regarding our lives. Hear Jesus say as He speaks to His followers; I’m not here to do my own thing, watch me closely because everything I will do is going align with the Fathers original intention for me . The element of surprise is not one that can be found in heavens dictionary because nothing surprises God . You are an intention of God plucked out of eternity into time to fulfill God's purposes. Our journey on earth must be fashioned to emulate the predictions of eternity .This journey, as painful as it may be, will sometimes bypass any emotional consideration. Your immediate happiness will seem not to be its prime focus. Just like Jesus, this journey may seem to bring you more hatred than love, more enemies than friends, more war than peace. In all these things the will of God will always be paramount.

One day in Jeremiah 1:5 God appeared to the prophet Jeremiah and said Jerry, even before you formed in your mother’s womb I knew you and I had ordained you as a prophet. The Hebrew word formed is yâtsar(yaw-tsar') which is descriptive of how a potter molds an idea into a form or even better to give a frame to something . He’s telling Jerry that even before you obtained a form or physical frame whether tall or short, fat or slim or with huge ears like mine, I knew your existence beyond the shores of time .Your footsteps had already been etched into the sandstones of eternity. Even Before we all obeyed the call of “puuush” by the Doctor in the delivery room we had an ordination that was predetermined by God. That is why there’s absolutely nothing that can deter the purpose of God from coming to pass unless we allow it. This ordination doesn’t change if you were born into an unfortunate circumstance or not, as long as you are walking in God's will it continues to remain unabated. . The next time someone asks you why you do the things you do the way you do them just look straight into their eyes and say to them I came in the volumes of the book!!

Ernest kobby Baah