Job 5:7 (NIV)
Yet man is born to trouble
as surely as sparks fly upward.
Most everything requires some degree of maintenance to continue to function for the purposes designed. To retain and maintain purpose; energy, intelligent creativity, and effort are required. When purpose is lost maintenance loses it raison d'être. The first step to disintegration is loss of the will or resources to maintain purpose—whether it is humanly or providentially supplied. The aging process and eventually death are examples in which systems no longer have the resources to perform the purposes for which they were designed. To sustain a lively purpose for his many creations is one of the greatest challenges of man. The implements of war will disappear only when and if the undergirding purposes for them disappear; provisions for war being seen as a necessity. The ideal situation is to have lively purposes and abundant resources. Whereas purposes are a creation of the mind and to a certain extent within man’s control, the supply of resources (in contrast to the exploitation of them) lies largely outside of his control. Often “creation of” and “exploitation of” are largely confused until resources are exhausted. Since “man is born to trouble” pessimism and cynicism are constant threats to his high spirits and to his greatest challenge to creativity cultivate purpose. Man’s abiding spiritual thirst is a clear indication that he has no inclinations for abandoning his search for purpose or for his role to create it.
