We are here for God. Not the other way around.
That’s a line from one of our anthems, and it caught me this week. Because most of us have it backwards. We come to church, we come to God, and we’re really thinking about what we need. What we want. What we hope God will do for us. And we turn our lives upside down in the process.
We forget sometimes that we exist for God. That the whole thing works because God made us for a purpose beyond ourselves. You’d think that would be depressing, right? But it’s actually the most freeing thing there is.
When you understand that you’re here for God—not that God’s here to fix your life like some cosmic customer service—everything shifts. The things that seem like the biggest problems don’t control you the same way. The disappointments don’t hit the same. Because you’re anchored to something bigger than your comfort or your success or even your happiness.
And the crazy thing is, when you quit demanding that God make you happy, you actually become happier. Because you start noticing what’s actually good. You start being a blessing instead of always looking for one. You start giving instead of keeping score.
That’s what it means to be blessed—not getting what you want, but understanding that you’ve been given something worth more than that. Understanding that you have something to give. And starting to give it.
We are here for God. Let that sink in. Not here for what we can get. Here because we belong to something sacred. Here because we have work to do. Real work. The kind that lasts.
A reflection by Rev. MaryGean Cope