I was driving home a couple of weeks ago, weighed down by frustration, when I did what I often do—I started speaking to God. The words came out almost unfiltered: “God, this world stinks. It’s only getting worse. Why did You even create us? And why here?” I wasn’t expecting an answer, but in the quiet that followed, a thought pressed so strongly into my mind it was as if it had been waiting there the whole time: I created you to love you.
I don’t go around claiming special audible words from God. In fact, I’m usually pretty skeptical when preachers with silver tongues act like they have a hotline to heaven. But this was different. It wasn’t rehearsed or imagined, and it came again just as clear: I created you to love you, and for you to love Me back. At that moment, a rush of peace washed over me, the kind that can’t be explained away as coincidence. It was as though God Himself answered the very cry of my heart.
That’s the heart of it—God wanted us. Period. He didn’t create us to chase money, to wrestle endlessly with sickness, or to struggle against hateful and divisive people. Those things are the broken realities of a fallen world. But God knew that only by walking through this life could we ever come to truly appreciate Him, love Him back, and cling to Him as our everything.
At 51 years old, I’ve realized how short this life really is. What once felt crushing—financial struggles, health battles, broken relationships, daily frustrations—now looks like a brief moment when compared to eternity. Yes, it’s hard and it’s messy. But it’s also temporary.
If I’m being completely honest, had I not taken the paths I did, stumbled through the mistakes I made, and endured the struggles that came, I don’t think I’d ever have discovered what really matters. I might have stayed blind to the truth. But now I see it clearly: our ultimate purpose isn’t success, wealth, or even survival—it’s to know the God who made us, to love Him, and to live with Him forever. That perspective doesn’t erase the pain of life, but it makes the weight of it feel light when seen in the light of eternity.
That night on the drive home, God’s answer shifted something in me. The world may still stink, but the reason we’re here isn’t wrapped up in the mess. It’s wrapped up in His love. And that love changes everything.