Don’t Plagiarize Your Purpose
I knew I was in trouble. By fourth grade, I’d been sent to the principal’s office enough that I was familiar with the tone. Plus, my conscience had been bothering me ever since I handed in the poem.
Plagiarism. I was guilty.
Our assignment was 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 creative guy in the first place.
We didn’t 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 seen 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)
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 God thoughtfully brought each of us into being to fulfill a role and responsibility He personally prepared before time for each one of us. This means your life’s purpose is something only you can doas you live out the salvation God gifted you and gave you the faith to receive (see verses 8 & 9).
Even as a 10-year-old, I didn’t want to fail or produce a bad limerick. I wanted my work to be seen as excellent, and I wanted to get a good grade. 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 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 for what is deemed most significant because we think it will fulfill us.
But when we do that, it’s like plagiarizing instead of fulfilling the uniquely God-given purpose for our lives.
Dear Saints, don’t try to be like someone else in an attempt to achieve what you think would be more significant. 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. And you will find much more fulfillment when you are doing the work God designed for you to do!
It may require a bit more work to live out your own assignment than to follow others (copying another poem was much easier than writing it myself...). 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!