In 1995, before leaving on a ministry trip to Australia, I read a true story about a seminary student who struck up a conversation with a teenager who had been living on the streets of Melbourne. As the student tried to talk to him about Jesus, the teenager asked pointedly, “What is God like?”
Why does entertainment fascinate the human spirit? Why do certain movies capture our imaginations? It’s because there is something in our human fabric that longs to be transported beyond our mundane living. Hollywood tries to grab our dreams and passions through films—drama, adventure, romance—and does a fairly good job. But these are just counterfeits of the real drama, adventure, and romance that are a part of God’s design.
“The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” I remember the first time I read this statement. My heart leaped. There was something about enjoying God that intrigued me. It captured my imagination. For weeks I found myself asking the same burning questions—“Is it possible for someone to truly enjoy God?” “Is this what my heart has been longing for all these years?” These questions kept swirling in my mind.
What is the meaning of life? It’s a question that has been debated by everyone from philosophers to college students in their dorm rooms. If you would press many Christians to explain the purpose for their existence, they would probably suggest that God gave them life so they could glorify Him in what they do. But, for many of these same individuals, “glorifying God” is an empty phrase. Ask them to describe what it means or how it’s done, and you’re likely to get a blank stare.
You may not realize it, but Father God is ravished by you. You make Him smile. You make Him laugh. You make Him leap for joy. You make His heart beat faster. In Zephaniah 3:17 the Bible even says you make Him sing for joy. Whether you understand that or not doesn’t stop God from responding to you in that way. He looks at you and grins. He sees your hair, your skin, your smile, and He rejoices.
There once was a beautiful woman named Helen who lived in the ninth century before Christ. She was the wife of the king of Greece. The king was madly in love with her. One evening Paris, the prince of Troy, came under the cover of night and took Helen away. Paris had fallen in love with Helen and had stolen her from the king of Greece. History tells us that this started the Trojan War. The two kingdoms went to war over one woman. According to tradition, because of the king’s great love for Helen, he launched over a thousand ships just to get his wife back. Instead of calling her Helen of Troy, we should call her “Helen the Pursued” or “Helen the Fought-Over.”
