Bill Krisher — A Purpose for
Life
What are you living for?
Maybe you'll have a hard time answering that question honestly. I know it took something special in my life to make me dig for an answer.
I was a freshman at the University of Oklahoma and a second-string guard on the football team when a serious knee injury put me flat on my back. After the operation, the doctor told me, "Bill, three ligaments and a cartilage have been pretty well mutilated. I'm afraid you won't be able to play any more ball."
After the doctor left my hospital room, I looked up at the ceiling and began thinking. I'd played football since eighth grade. What would my life be like without it? What would it be like sitting on the sidelines watching the others blocking, tackling, running with the ball?
What was I living for anyway?
Plenty of people I'd met were living quite frankly for pleasure. But this is asking no more of life than an animal asks. And the Bible teaches that man is created in the image of God. There is eternity in man and he can
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have fellowship with the Almighty. Living only for pleasure makes it impossible for him to enjoy God's presence in this life and leaves him completely unprepared for the greater fellowship that is possible in the next.
Many people live for material security. Job interviewers contacting college seniors these days are being surprised. The old questions about salary and the chances for advancement are being pushed aside for a new question that is being asked quite sincerely: "What kind of retirement plan does your company offer?"
Today's concern with material security is especially ironic because no generation in history before this one has grown up with the threat of world-wide nuclear destruction. Actually there is no such thing as material security. There never has been. Death comes to all of us, young and old. And all the bank accounts and stocks and bonds in the world cannot change this fact for anyone.
Still others live for success in their chosen vocation. A familiar sight to pro football players each summer is the incoming rookie. Many youngsters, of course, are fine fellows. But there are always a few who come into the club ready to tear up the world. They've got their press clippings and trophies packed in their suitcases and they are ready to claw and scramble and promote themselves to the top of the heap as soon as possible. Boys who may never before have taken a drink or been promiscuous are now ready to throw away their scruples for a chance to get in with the "right" clique. Compromise is the order of the day.
But even if this kind of personal promotion were to pay off (which it usually doesn't!) what is the best "success" such a ball player can hope for? Eight or ten
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years of pro action? Then what? It's all over and character has been sacrificed.
What do we mean by "success" anyway? Success by whose standards? The Bible teaches that God is the final Judge before whom we shall all stand one day. God then will proclaim us "successful" or "unsuccessful."
What is your goal in life? Do you have one strong purpose for living? If not, ponder this: people who aim at nothing in particular usually achieve just that.
Paul said, "For me to live is Christ." I came to the same conclusion as I lay on that hospital bed after my knee operation. I decided to live completely for Christ. I knew I could serve Him with a broken knee or, for that matter, with no knee at all. He had died for my sins, granted me fellowship with Himself, given me assurance about the life to come. Why shouldn't I live for Him?
My knee injury did not spell the end of my football career however. After months of exercise, the injured tissue responded enough to permit a walk, then a limping run, finally a full sprint. Today, thanks to His grace, I'm still playing football!
Prayer Suggestion
Give your life an "agonizing reappraisal." If you're not sure about the direction in which you're going, ask God to clear away the confusion. Ask Him to show you what's wrong and how to set it right. Dare to believe that you could be a twentieth-century disciple of Jesus Christ.
Bill Krisher was an All-American football player with the University of Oklahoma; All-Pro guard with the Dallas Texans; Associate Director, Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
