I’ve been busy lately.  Elian and I went to Nashville last weekend to visit some friends and attend a most exciting Georgia football game.  And this week Lexi has been on Fall Break from preschool.  Which means she thought it’d be a good time to get pneumonia.  All that to say I haven’t had time to think about blogging.

And what I really mean by that is that I haven’t made time to think about God.  Because when I do, He usually speaks to me, giving me things to think, and, subsequently, write about.

(Side note: I used 5 commas in that last sentence.  That has to be some sort of a record.  Or grammatically incorrect.  It’s one or the other.)

But yesterday I managed to spend 20 minutes in Exodus, and, during that time, I also managed to discover the meaning of life.

Cutest Bible Ever

I really can’t take all the credit.  All I did was read the Bible.  God and Moses and Pharaoh had something to do with it.  And those folks at Zondervan who published my Bible.  They are the masterminds who gave it this cute brown and pink leather cover with a magnetic closure that took my breath away the instant I saw it.  I had to have it.  Which is why Elian “bought it for me” for Valentine’s Day many moons ago.

I digress.

In Exodus 9 the Egyptians are experiencing some awful plagues because their leader, Pharaoh, wouldn’t allow his slaves, the Israelites, to take a three-day weekend to go worship God in the desert, per Moses and Aaron’s request.

After the SIXTH plague – seriously, Pharaoh?  How thick-headed ARE you?! – God told Moses to enlighten Pharaoh with the following message:

“For by now I [God] could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.  But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Exodus 9:15-16

Did you catch it?  The meaning of life?

Like Pharaoh, we are here for a two-fold purpose – so God can show us His power and to be agents through which God’s name is proclaimed in all the earth.

First of all, how humbled do I feel that God wants to show me His power?  Little ole me…  Disappointing me…  Unimportant me…  If nothing else, this verse testifies to the personal nature of God.  He cares about each and every one of us.  He is not some distant God who doesn’t concern Himself with His creation, like the deists believe.  He is involved, wanting to show us His power in a personal way.

Why does God want to show us His power?  Maybe so we will know, from our own experience, that He is God, that He is worthy to be praised, and that having a relationship with Him is worth whatever it may cost us.

God is trying to show you His power.  Are you looking for it?

The second fold of our two-fold purpose is that God wants to involve us some way in proclaiming His name through all the earth.  I think He can use us directly and indirectly to do this.

If we are recognizing His power in our lives, we will naturally proclaim Him to those around us.  We won’t be able to help ourselves.  We will speak of His goodness and his holiness, and He will be proclaimed.

But should we fail to proclaim Him, as we are wont to do from time to time, He can still proclaim His name through us to those around us.  Onlookers can often see how God is working in our lives when we can’t, and they can proclaim His goodness even if we don’t.

How is God inviting you to celebrate what He is doing in your life or in the lives of those around you?

Recognize His power, and proclaim His name.  This is the meaning of life.