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What am I here for? By Richard Raad, Interim Pastor



Everyone has a core hunger in them. That hunger is to answer a critical question. That question is “What am I here for?” As a church body, I believe that one of our most important responsibilities is to help answer that question. Larry Crabb, a noted Christian psychologist, tells us that this hunger is placed there by God to move us to find Him. Our search for purpose will bring us to search for God and when we find Him, it will lead us to search for our role in His purpose. If it’s God that every individual is searching for, then who is better qualified to assist in that journey than we who are the church. We all need vision in our lives to reveal where we fit and how we can be fulfilled.



Currently, the focus of our attention here at Fountain of Life is on a vision plan that we have embraced. We believe that this vision can help us to fulfill the calling God has given us. It provides definition to what we should be doing and it points us to a clear place of fruitfulness that we want to get to. Our messages over the past month have focused on specifically what it means to change the world. We’ve tried to communicate the idea that it is something that all of us can do and that it is simple ordinary things that make it work best. No high and mighty concepts here; just living our lives in a godly way, serving the needs of others and, when needed, speaking to people about our confidence in God.




Our vision includes an awareness, however, that these things do not happen easily. There is this formidable enemy that we need to overcome, called darkness. That darkness is a force that engulfs us all to one degree or another and we need to bring an increased understanding into our own lives while we seek to shine a light of revelation into others lives. This is a process and we all are somewhere on the road to a full understanding of God’s eternal purpose. But the darkness continues to fight back.




So, the question we need to answer for ourselves is, “Can I really overcome darkness and shine some light into someone else’s life?” If we’re going to fulfill God’s purpose for our lives and for our church, we need to be sure about this issue. Am I, or are we, qualified to overcome darkness – to overcome the kingdom of this world?




Fortunately, John firmly declares to us in 1 John 5: 4 that, “everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” I think that’s good to know. We are definitely able to overcome because we have a faith that radiates light into any darkness. It’s not like you have to throw a switch or something. You just have to be born of God, to have a faith in God. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? If so, then congratulations! You are an overcomer! You are a light that breaks up darkness.



Darkness has one choice to overcome us. Engulf us in the mindset of this world, confuse us on our confidence in God and turn us against each other. It works every time. What that does is dim the light that we shine by our lives. The more we embrace the values, the achievements, the purposes of this world, the less we can overcome. The more we struggle, question or doubt the goodness and the promises of God, the less we can overcome. The more we cut ourselves off from each other, the less we overcome. Darkness is not sitting out there on the horizon waiting for you to come out to challenge him. Darkness is all around and constantly working to distract you from what God is doing.



Our church is experiencing a lot of challenges right now. But, if God has called us to exercise our faith and overcome, it’s not surprising that we have these challenges. God is still there ready to act on our behalf and none of the challenges are greater than He is. In fact, “greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.” We have the faith, we just need to exercise it. I’m asking each of you to think on what God can do for us and not on what might happen if He doesn’t. Focus on the call to be world changers and let’s work to shine a light into any darkness. What God has in mind for us can only be prevented by one thing. If we turn our eyes toward the darkness rather than onto Jesus, we choose to abandon our calling. Then the light we were meant to shine grows dim and we’re left wandering around trying to find the answer to that question, “What am I here for?”