Sure as Grandma’s Cake: Why You are Here

I heard a story told by an elderly man. It went something like this.

Dudley had just about had it. His boy, David, was nine years old and had promised all week he’d get the yard mowed. The mower still hadn’t moved, and the grass looked like a hayfield. Dudley felt like he had talked to the youngin’ enough and finally grabbed a wooden paddle. But before he could make his point, David tore off running like his life depended on it. When Dudley finally caught up, that boy turned around with a straight face and said, “Dad, the only reason you had me was so I could work for you.”

Dudley just froze. Then he started laughing so hard he dropped to his knees in the tall yard grass. Between laughs, he started doing the math in his head—doctor bills, clothes, food, school supplies, birthday presents. “Son,” he said, “I’ve spent about thirty thousand dollars just to get my yard mowed a few times. If that’s why I had you, I’ve been ripped off.”

Now that’s funny, but it’s also a picture of what happens when somebody doesn’t understand why they’re here. It made me realize that when you don’t know your purpose, you can say some pretty crazy things—and believe them too. Even worse, you can make choices that can be downright foolish. I think many people are like David; they are running from their Father because they don’t understand the reason for their existence.

Your Short Sentence

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the fact that every life tells a story. A while back, I came across a little writing challenge that reminded me of that perspective again. Supposedly, someone once dared Ernest Hemingway to write a story in just six words. What he came up with has become famous: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Six words, but there is a world of emotion behind them. Teachers of literature and poetry have used this short sentence to illustrate how a few carefully chosen words can communicate so much.

Over the years, people have attempted to tackle the challenge that was posed to Hemingway and summarize their own lives in six words. One man wrote: “One tooth. One cavity. Life’s cruel.” A nine-year-old boy fighting thyroid cancer wrote: “Cursed with cancer. Blessed with friends.” 

When I read those words, I think about how short life is. Like these little sentences, we have only a little time to make a statement.

If you told your life’s story in six words, what would they be? What story are you telling right now—the one you are writing each day with every choice you make? At the heart of this searching question lies one much deeper - what is the real reason I am here? Will my little sentence of words that I call my “life” actually mean something?

Sure as Grandma’s Cake

Many people are searching for meaning in life, trying to figure out why they are here. I wanted to share a simple truth about purpose, using one of my favorite subjects: food! 

Grandma baked a cake. Now, you can bring in all kinds of experts to look at that cake, and each one will have something to say about it. The chemist would tell you how the ingredients react together—the baking soda, the sugar, the flour, and the heat—all working as catalysts to make the cake rise. The nutritionist would tell you how many calories are in each slice and whether you should feel guilty about eating it. The physicist would explain how heat moves through the oven and transforms the batter into bread. The biologist would discuss how your body breaks it down and converts it into energy.

Each of them could tell you something about the cake. But not one of them could tell you why Grandma made the cake. There’s only one person who knows that—Grandma. And she’d smile and say, “It’s for my grandson’s birthday.”

That’s the thing about purpose. The “how” of something can be studied, tested, and measured. But the “why” can only be explained by the one who made it. 

And only the One who created you knows the reason He made you.

Everything Happens for an Actual “Reason”

There’s a verse in the Bible that most folks know by heart. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” It’s one of those verses you see on coffee mugs and cross-stitched on pillows. But most people stop there. They never read the very next verse, which actually tells us what that good is.

Verse 29 says, “For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” That’s the definition of “good.” Everything that happens in our lives—the blessings, the trials, the disappointments, the detours—all of it is working toward that one eternal goal: that we might be molded to look like Jesus. And in eternity, that’s precisely where the believer lands.

God’s purpose for your life is much bigger than just your life. It reaches beyond the seventy or eighty years you’ll spend here. It’s eternal. It stretches into forever. And when it’s all said and done, I can tell you what you will become—you’ll be a perfect reflection of Jesus Christ Himself . . .

Sure as Grandma’s cake!