So, what does God expect from us? What is the larger purpose of our existence?”
I believe that God’s mission was to create for us a world capable of great beauty, art, love, peace, justice, health, safety, abundance, joy and compassion, but also of hatred, violence, disease and disaster, and to create human beings who, collectively, despite the “tragic souls” among us, want and are capable of filling the world with the former and eliminating the latter, thus creating a Heaven on earth.
In that light, I believe it is a sin against God and man to waste your God-given talents and “fortune”, and an even greater sin to use them for harm against nature and God’s creatures. Therefore, I believe it is my moral obligation to do what I can do to make the world a better place each day. It follows that those who are fortunate enough to be endowed with exceptional talent, intellect, creativity and other gifts have a greater obligation to the common good.
We all have gifts and talents that can help, heal, humor, inspire and generally enhance the world we live in. Unfortunately, there are among us the “tragic souls” who we have referred to above and elsewhere in this discussion. Much of the hatred and violence in the world is a product of the tragic souls among us who are born with biochemical imbalances and/or cultural and environmental influences that result in violent behavior. God has created the world with these and other tragedies, and I believe that God has given us the gifts to conquer violence and other worldly problems like disease and natural disaster.