Introduction
There was never a time in my life where I felt as if I didn’t know that God existed. From a logical point of view it seemed obvious to me. However I didn’t always believe in God, and there is a clear distinction to be made between the two. Furthermore, I always battled with doubt and a lack of self-belief. This also meant that I grew up struggling with understanding what I was made to do. In episode two of “The Back To Square One Podcast (You Have A calling)”, I opened up about how that changed. My self-belief began to grow the moment I went from knowing of God to actually believing in him. That belief reflected in a renewed sense of self-belief by understanding who I was made to be. It developed into an understanding of my calling which is the only reason why I am here today writing this letter to you. Without this understanding, I will still be living in the rat-race projecting a false sense of confidence while hiding the very gifts that God has carefully entrusted me with. My prayer is that you recognise the importance of your calling and defeat the fear that might be stopping you from honouring it. With that being said, this is what I grew to understand:
Knowing Isn’t Enough. You Need To Believe!
If it is possible for you to know something is true but still choose not to believe it in your hearts, it will be this - the fact that you are made for more. This is a fact that many say cannot be quantified with physical or tangible evidence. But it is a sentiment that is widely agreed upon across the human race no matter one’s ethnic or religious background. Everyone knows that they have been made for more but not everyone believes it. The difference between knowing something and believing in something is that knowledge requires tangible or experiential evidence but belief requires choice and the will of the heart.
The evidence for one's knowledge of truth can be quantified through behaviour. Behaviour can be described as the evidence of what you believe inside of your heart. So there are people in this world who genuinely think that they do not have a purpose, they haven’t been called by a higher power and there is no deeper meaning to life that transcends their day to day desires. They “believe'' that we are simply human beings living on a big spinning rock for a limited period of time, and when we die, we return to dust. We haven’t been made for more than what meets the eye and some will go as far as saying that we haven’t been made all together. So if the evidence of belief can be measured through behaviour, then what does the evidence say about people who claim to believe this?
On the other hand, there are many of us who do believe that we have been made for more. We pray, we declare, we profess our faith and the list goes on. But if we use the same measure of judgement which states: the evidence belief is measured through behaviour. Then what does our behaviour really say about what we believe in? Are we truly living lives that honour our calling? If we think of it in this way and we are truly honest with ourselves, I would go as far as saying that many believers suffer from the same problems of unbelief as atheists and agnostics. If the root of belief comes from a wilful heart then there will be evidence to show for it (Read James 2:26).
How do we know we have been made for more?
We know this because the evidence lies in our behaviour and we know this because the Bible said so 3,000 years ago (we’ll get to this). At some point in our lives we would have experienced feelings of frustration and anger. No matter where you are from, no matter what you believe in, this feeling has been a common denominator across the human race from the beginning of time. I read an interesting article stating that 97% of office workers in the UK feel frustrated at work. This is an overwhelming majority in only one country and in one field of research. So imagine what frustration looks like across the globe? I will assume that it is an emotion that one can’t escape.
What does frustration actually mean and how does it even point towards the notion of meaning in one's life?
Frustration (noun) - a deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems or unfulfilled needs.
Mariam Webster / Dictionary
This definition describes the root of frustration as deep. This means it goes beneath surface level knowledge and understanding. Furthermore it makes a critical link between the evidence of dissatisfaction and the cause of a lack of fulfilment. The point I am trying to make is that you get frustrated because you fail to attach a deeper sense of meaning to your behaviour. Which is why one can have a high paying job but still feel frustrated and unfulfilled. I interpret this as glaring evidence pointing us towards a creator that fearfully and wonderfully made us for more. Therefore if frustration can be understood as the evidence of lack; then it can also be understood as the evidence for more. If we have the ability to perceive the evidence of absence then we also have the ability to acknowledge the need for presence in order to fill the very void that causes the common problem. Frustration will always be evident wherever God is not. Therefore it is possible to know of his existence and still not believe in his ways.
Because he has set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every [person] which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”
Blaise Pascal
From our existence we understand that the human heart longs for meaning set in eternity beyond what our 5 senses have the capability to fathom. There is a vacuum in our hearts that we ALL KNOW we have to fill. This is why we can know of God but ignorantly search for him in the wrong ways. That is evidently seen in our behaviour as individuals and it has been evident throughout the history of man-kind. When you get frustrated what do you turn to? If you turn to something, even if it isn’t God, then you have just affirmed that your heart seeks meaning. As a species we have developed a knack for acknowledging and filling that void with things such as money, instant gratification, sex, status, drugs, food, work, and the list goes on. This problem is that all of these things only produce temporary fulfilment. So we go through our lives knowing that we have been made for more while being frustrated at the fact that we don’t live for more.
It’s Time To Live For More!
You can live for more by acknowledging the calling placed on your life from the one who created it. That is a more sustainable way of living and it marks the difference between a knowledge of God’s existence and actually believing in his ways. If you believe in his ways, you will believe in yourself! There are things that have been placed within your heart that the world is ready to see. The unique gifts that you possess are not coincidental; they were intentionally given to you so that you can honour your calling. You may already know what you were born to do but you are letting fear block these blessings to the world. On the other hand, you may not know at all. If this is the case, then continue to seek God in truth. He will point you towards meaning. There is something that I need you to remember:
An extraordinary God does not make ordinary people but people will always be ordinary without God.