You’re unique for a reason

It is an obvious truism that everyone wants to have an identity. We all want to have a name and to know our mother and father, as well as our racial or ethnic group. Most people want to know their ancestry and to know the history and achievements of their ancestors and race. People can go to great lengths to search for their roots.

In all this search for identity there are two things we tend to forget.

First, we often fail to ask ourselves whose we are. Yes, we may think we know who we are, but whose are we?

The problem here is that we convince ourselves that we belong to ourselves. That’s why we can glibly say: “It’s my life. I can do with it whatever I want!” We even fail to acknowledge that we did not participate in the process of being created. We only discovered that we existed when life had already been given to us through the instrumentality of our parents. We fail to see that somebody else gave us this life which we call ours.

The second thing we usually are not aware of is our uniqueness. Just think of this: There are six billion people in the world today, but out of those six billion, there is no one like you. There is no one who has the same physical features, characteristics and gifts as you! Even identical twins are different from each other in some ways. There will be some physical feature, quality, manner of speaking or gift which makes the one twin different from the other.

Each and every one of us is unique. Each of us is in a sense sui generis, a special type, a unique being whose uniqueness has been determined by our Maker, the one who created us. It is only God Almighty who has the power to make sure that we are different from everybody else on earth.

This uniqueness should be seen not only from the perspective of appearance, gifts and qualities. The one who made us made each one of us for a special purpose. God did not make us just for the fun of making us. Our God is a God of purpose. Everything he does or makes has a purpose. As for us human beings, every one of us was created not only to know and love God and have eternal life; but also to play our part in the history and unfolding of salvation.

Without a doubt, salvation can only come through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

However, God also decided that Jesus would bring the Good News of salvation not only through himself working singlehandedly as the Son of God, but through him with the assistance of human beings. This is why Jesus founded his Church so that the work of making him known would continue through his disciples from the apostolic times down the ages to the end of the world. And this is why Paul would proclaim: “And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Rm 10:14).

Jesus himself said: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Lk 10:2). Yes, the work of salvation is so much that God wants every one of us to play his or her part in advancing the cause of salvation and building the kingdom of God on earth. Each of us was born in a particular society at a particular point in history because God assigned a particular task to each.

The point of this column is to emphasise that for a Christian, and even more so for a Christian leader, it is not enough to know and love God; it is also essential to discover one’s purpose in life.

The challenge for every Christian, therefore, is to discover one’s purpose in life and to fulfil that purpose.

My challenge is this: Have you discovered your purpose in life? If you have, ensure you keep developing the character and sense of commitment that will enable you to fulfil that purpose.

If you haven’t discovered your purpose, join me in next month’s column, and together we will ask the Lord to help you know who you really are and why he brought you into this world at this particular point in the history of humankind.