God’s purpose, your purpose?
Genesis 1 tells us much about the character and purposes of God in creation. Why, for example, does God wait until day six to create human beings? Why doesn't he just do it on day one? Well, at the entirely pragmatic level, if He had created human beings on day 1, Adam would have had nowhere to stand and nothing to eat. Indeed, by the time, God creates human beings everything is ready for them - there's ground to stand on, air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, a beautiful environment to enjoy, animals to steward and purposeful work to be done. What has God done? He has created a context for human flourishing - with Him. And it was "very good".
This desire to create contexts for human flourishing is also surely what we are all called to do. Is this not what good parents instinctively seek to do for their families - create a context in which all the individuals in the family can flourish? Is this not what a good manager does for a team? Tries to create a context in which people can not only do great work but do it in a way that helps them flourish as whole human beings? As one senior manager put it: "My job is to roll the rocks off the runway". Presumably so other people can fly.
That's one of the things we are here to do - create contexts in which other people can flourish. Not easy, when the conditions under which many work - whether physical or psychological - make it feel more like Egypt than the promised land. Still, even if you can't change the corporate ethos of a multi-national by lunchtime, you may be able to make things a little more positive for the people around you.
Ask a colleague about their weekend, send a twenty word email of appreciation to someone or to that person's boss, bring in a packet of chocolate biscuits, celebrate a team member's birthday, give everyone a Cadbury's mini-egg for Easter... or you could look up right now and send up an arrow prayer for those around you. After all, even if we can't roll the boulders off someone's runway, we may be able to remove a pebble from their shoe.
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