Why Am I Doing This?

By Yijia Chen, CIFC President ‘19-21

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10.31, ESV) Why am I doing this? A question I ask myself every day. There is always an earthly answer to this question and that answer can have various forms; but for us Christians, there is also always a spiritual answer to that question. And that answer is constant: to glorify God.

When I was first told by my 10th grade English teacher, Mr. Dunn, that the only thing that God wants from me is to be glorified, I thought how selfish God must be for Him to only want to be glorified. In Isiah 43:7, God even claimed that He created humans for His glory. Although this may be the only lesson that I took away from my 10th grade English class, I am forever grateful for paying attention during class that day.

But, why should we glorify God?

Humans are sinners, this is an undeniable fact. People do things on a daily basis that do not reflect or represent God’s love and mercy, but we are still able to have a relationship with God and even go to Heaven. For this paradox to make sense, a price was paid. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3.16, ESV). This message has been preached countless times for thousands of years. But Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross was not the only price he paid, He also came from Heaven to become an earthly man. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5.21, ESV) Jesus’ transformation and death are not the only two reasons why God deserves our glorification, but they perfectly reflect the degree of God’s love and mercy.

Martin Luther has argued soli deo gloria better than I can ever do. However, there still seems to be no way to justify why He deserves to be glorified by billions of people for their lifetimes, and there will never be. There perhaps will never be enough reasons. The reasons are different for every person. They can be both personal and general. To me, the Gospel is only one of the reasons why He deserves my glorification. I want to live my life to glorify Him because God pursued me first, because He brought me to where I am today, and also because He healed my ankle.

When I first became a Christian my Sophomore year of high school, I felt that I owed God my glory. I felt that giving Him my glory was the only way to pay Him back for my sins and His healing. It turned out that I was wrong. After years of working hard and trying to be a better person, I realized that my relationship with God is not transactional.

To me, God’s glory is constant. It is not affected by my decision whether or not I glorify Him. In fact, it is a miracle that He even allows me to glorify Him. I think about it this way, how will it affect my daily life if there is a deeper spiritual meaning to everything I do?

When I am working my butt off, trying to finish four midterms within the same week and to pass all of them, it is, in a way, my attempt to bring glory to God. Doesn’t this add a little more meaning and fun to our stressful and dry midterm season? Studying hard to gain knowledge, so that I can use this knowledge better to serve and glorify Him in the future. Someone may disagree that studying hard does not glorify God and this is simply my attempt to justify why I haven’t stepped out of my apartment for the past two weeks, yet it is a perfect way to demonstrate that everyone has their ways to glorify God.

When I act and live for the sake of God’s glory, and not because it will add to His glory but simply because He deserves it, the results of the battles don’t matter to me anymore. I am allowed to make mistakes, it is my personal relationship with God that matters the most. The only thing that is important is that I am constantly trying to stay on this journey of pursuing and glorifying Him. Because that is soli deo gloria in its simplest form, pursuing and glorifying God.