Made on Purpose
'I am fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Ps 139.14)
Welcome to the third in a series of God on Monday reflections on purpose!
God loves variety and diversity. Recent snowfall in the UK is a reminder that in a handful of snow, there are several million unique snowflakes – not one of them is the same as another. God likes that kind of variety in people too. Take the gallery of faces you see on your next Zoom call. None are alike. Each face represents a unique and complex person.
This truth is reflected in some beautiful poetry in the Psalms: ‘You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Ps 139.13-14a). Apparently, even our tiny fingerprints were God-designed. Their uniqueness reflects with what creativity and intricacy God has made us.
No one, therefore, is an accident. God has a purpose for every human being that is unique to them. When the theologian J.H. Newman decided to change denomination, he lost friends and his sister never spoke to him again. But he wrote ‘God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. (…) He may take away my friends…still He knows what He is about’.
You, in other words, are God’s idea. God has personally and purposefully designed you. In being uniquely you, you are the person God wants to offer to the world.
The fact that this is true for everyone has implications for the way we treat other people in the performance-driven context of the contemporary workplace. Reverting to the snow analogy, although every colleague of ours is as unique as a snowflake, we may be tempted to lump them together, seeing them just as snow. How would our perspective and behaviour change if we were to give due regard to the fact that the 'snow' around us is in fact made up of unique snowflakes, each one with a purpose and design of its own?
Were we to try answering this question, we would be well on our way to understanding the purpose of business. For at the heart of every company are human beings that are lovingly created and purposed by God.
Peter Heslam, Director, Faith in Business
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