Seeking a deeper purpose? Let God use you.

Anyone who wishes to find a deeper purpose in life can find inspiration in Jesus’ words and in the way he lived each day. Whether he was teaching spiritual truths, healing someone who’d been suffering, or bearing witness to the transformation of an individual’s character, his purpose was always to love, serve, and glorify God, divine Truth. In order to do this, Jesus drew continually on the mighty quality of humility. His career was distinguished by his unselfish willingness to be led by God, to allow God to use him for His purpose. We, too, can cultivate a desire to love, serve, and glorify God joyfully and consistently.

In the Bible’s book of Psalms it says, “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (84:10). “A doorkeeper in the house of . . . God” might be said to describe the vital role of a Christian disciple. In early biblical times, a door-keeper might stand humbly at the entrance of a tent, serving his master by attending, when prompted, to the simple opening of the tent flap or door. 

The “house” of God could be said to symbolize all the love, knowledge, and power that define God’s kingdom. If so, then what is the doorkeeper’s role? Simply to listen and be ready to open the “door” to reveal to the outside world a new treasure of God, good. The doorkeeper isn’t responsible for the treasure within the tent—and doesn’t take pride in it, either. The doorkeeper would know that all that is within is God’s idea, God’s doing, and God’s possession.

An attentive doorkeeper, when asked, will be instant in opening the door. The more humble and awake the doorkeeper remains, the clearer and more sensitive he or she will be regarding the responsibilities of the position. Only the dullness of things such as vanity, ego, and materiality would distract from this vital work. For a disciple to assume a complete knowledge of God’s leading would make them incapable of being led.

In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy refers to the benefits of humility and purity. She writes, “The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality—much error—in order to become a better transparency for Truth” (p. 295). As the materiality of self-consciousness, self-deprecation, self-importance, and self-will is lost, the glory of God shines spiritually through one’s thoughts and actions. God is Love, and there is no brighter light, no greater healer, no more thorough transformer than divine Love.

It is natural to yield to Love’s tender help in dissolving any hardened sense of self that might interfere with our purpose of serving God.

To fulfill our role as doorkeeper of God’s house—of God’s wisdom, care, and goodness—it is natural to yield to Love’s always-available, tender help in dissolving any hardened sense of self that might interfere with our purpose of serving God. “In patient obedience to a patient God,” counsels Science and Health, “let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death” (p. 242).

When I was a teenager, I was involved in an incident that left much of one leg covered with an abrasion. For the next few days, I was quite angry with myself. I’d been wearing shorts when I should have been wearing long pants, and I felt so stupid. In my weekly Christian Science Sunday School class, I’d often heard about how God creates everyone: not totally or even partially physical, but altogether spiritual. For the next few days, I thought a lot about this, but it felt like a distant, philosophical concept.

Then my approach changed. Instead of trying to reason through my true, spiritual nature intellectually, I just quietly listened to God, who I knew is always present. It felt similar to standing humbly as a doorkeeper at the house of God in anticipation of what might emerge. Soon, something wonderful appeared in my thoughts. I realized that neither leg coverings nor a rough surface could even slightly affect the safety and well-being of God’s spiritual, flawless creation. So, there was really no need to be angry at myself.

Jesus became a transparency for divine Love’s saving and transforming power.

This new way of understanding myself as tangibly and permanently spiritual had all of the intelligence, love, and power of God behind it. It gave me a fresh start, and by the next morning I was healed and active. This whole experience glorified God for me because I could feel my love for God blossoming. It illustrated this encouraging statement in Science and Health: “Truth has furnished the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Science has opened the door of the human understanding” (p. 99).

Jesus lived each day as a humble transparency for God’s glory, love, and intelligence. You could say that he understood clearly his role as the door through which people encountered the kingdom of God. He said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9). Moment by moment, he was sensitive to divine Love’s prompting and became a transparency for its saving and transforming power. People were fed, healed, raised up, and cleansed, not by the doorkeeper, but by the power within God’s “house.” 

Today’s disciples are always free to assume their own individual roles as doorkeepers in the house of God. In any place and at any time, we can give our consent to being transparencies for God’s presence. A favorite hymn puts it this way: “Take my every thought, to use / In the way that Thou shalt choose” (Frances R. Havergal, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 324, adapted). In God’s service, selflessly and humbly, we release ourselves to God’s will, God’s love, and God’s purpose.