Purpose or Plagiarism
I knew I was in trouble. By fourth grade, I had spent enough time getting sent to the principal’s office that I was familiar with the tone. Plus, my conscience had been bothering me ever since handing in the poem.
Plagiarism.
I was guilty.
My fourth-grade elementary teacher had given us the assignment to write an original limerick. Not only did I procrastinate and wait until the night before it was due to work on it, but I’m not a very poetic, creative guy in the first place.
We did not have google back then, so I’m not sure where I found it. Regardless, I discovered what I thought was an obscure limerick. Thinking that my teacher wouldn’t know it, I copied the limerick, added my name, and turned it in as my own work.
Busted.
Whether she recognized the poem or not, I am positive it contained intellect and insight beyond a fourth-grade boy. Plus, she had been observing my work all year. She would have seen a clear difference between what I produced and what a published poet created.
In Ephesians 2:10, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (ESV)
You may have heard that the word in this verse ‘workmanship’ is the Greek word ‘poema’… or poem. It literally means the product of someone whose craftsmanship brought the thing into being. Combined with the phrase “created in Christ Jesus,” it emphasizes that each one of us is God’s unique creation which He thought up and designed for His purposes.
In the context of the rest of the verse, we see that He thoughtfully brought each of us into being in such a way that we are formed to fulfill a role and responsibility God personally prepared before time for each of us. The fulfillment of your life’s purpose is something only you can do as you live out the salvation God gifted you and gave you the faith to receive (see verses 8 & 9).
It’s well-known that we all desire to live a significant life.
Even as a 10-year-old fourth-grader, I didn’t want to fail or produce a lame limerick. I wanted my work to be seen as excellent, to stand out. But in seeking to achieve that, I took a shortcut, copied another’s work, and tried to pass it off as my own.
How often do we try to imitate someone else in order to ‘measure up’? The world teaches us to think that if we were more like that other person, we would be more significant. We slowly come to believe that certain things are more significant than others—even when it comes to serving Christ. Naturally, we strive to do what is deemed most significant because we want to stand out.
But when we do that, it’s like plagiarizing instead of fulfilling the uniquely God-given purpose for our lives.
Dear Saints, don’t copy someone else in an attempt to achieve what you think would be more significant rather than fulfilling the purpose for which God designed you. Like I discovered with my poem, God doesn’t want you to put your name on someone else’s work and call it your own. The One who created you gave you a specific life assignment—an assignment that only you can fulfill.
It may require a bit more work to live out your own assignment than to follow others as I discovered with my poem. But as you walk with the Lord, He will not only give you the wisdom and strength to complete your specific calling, but He will fulfill His good purpose for your life according to His plan.
Go forth and walk in the good works He has prepared for YOU!
