Over the weekend I rented the only car Hertz had left in Corpus Christi--a Hyundai Elantra.  Not bad for a cheap rental, but not the car Jeff Gordon wants to drive at the Texas Motor Speedway.  That's not its purpose.

You can play tennis with a football or golf with a bowling ball, but it's not much fun.  Things work best when they're used for their intended purpose.  My wireless microphone wouldn't make a very good hammer, but talking into a hammer isn't going to help my sermon much.

 It is a biblical fact that this world was never intended to give our lives meaning and purpose.  It's the wrong tool for the job.  It was never supposed to replace the Creator.  We weren't supposed to find ultimate purpose and joy in places or people or things or events.

There is a God-shaped emptiness in each of us, so that our hearts are restless until they rest in him.  We are supposed to "seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness," knowing that everything else will be added to us (Matthew 6:33).  We are supposed to "rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4), not in the world.  We are called to leave our boats and nets to follow Jesus and fish for men.  We are supposed to go wherever he leads, do whatever he asks, give whatever he wants.  That's biblical Christianity.

If we truly follow Jesus, we use the world to work for God.  We use our possessions and opportunities to glorify him.  We use our relationships to help people follow Jesus.  We use our gifts and abilities and money to extend his Kingdom. 

We stop trying to find purpose and joy in our fallen world, and seek them in knowing Jesus and making him known.  We die to the world so we can live with Christ.  We live on the vertical, for the eternal.  And one day when our adoption is complete and our bodies are redeemed, our hope will become fact and time will be eternity in Paradise.

So Paul is inviting us to a monumental shift in our way of approaching life.  Stop trying to find joy and fulfillment in what you do and have and how many people like you.  Die to all of that.  Start using what you do and have to serve your Savior.  Start using your relationships to help people follow Jesus.  Start living the surrendered life, the exchanged life, the Spirit-filled life.  And the paradox is that the less you live for the world, the greater your joy in the world.

As usual, C. S. Lewis explains this decision better than I can: "God made us; invented us as a man invents an engine.  A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else.  Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.  He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.  There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion.  God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.  There is no such thing.  That is the key to history.  Terrific energy is expended--civilizations are built up--excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong.  Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin.  In fact, the machine conks.  It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down.  They are trying to run it on the wrong juices" (Mere Christianity).