What is your purpose in life?
Family ties the Varvels to work, play and God
Above is my caricature of my family. My REEL Family was a video mockumentary that we produced a few years ago. You can watch the shows here.
FAMILY
Why did God create man, in His own image? Answer: Relationship — God wanted a family. The Bible describes God as our Father and we are His children. That is a family.
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)
God gave humans the ability to create other humans. Perhaps you’ve noticed that through the process of procreation, our children bear our image — a family resemblance.
A parent’s job is to train their children to find their purpose in life. Consider this illustration: A glove is in the image of a hand. But the glove only has purpose when a hand is in the glove. Likewise, people are created in the image of God but can only find purpose when we are indwelt by God.
The world is in the mess it’s in because most people have never discovered their purpose in a relationship with God. Those people will disagree with that statement.
The Bible says that our enemy, Satan, wants to destroy families and he has had success.
1 Peter 5:8-9 says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
A lot of families today have been devoured. According to a 2021 Pew Research Center poll, “more adults report they do not want to have children — ever. About 44% of people ages 18 to 49 report it’s unlikely or “not too likely” that they’ll have children.”
I have an agnostic friend who never had any children because he didn’t want to bring them into this messed up world. He asked me recently how my children were doing. I said, “They are doing great. My wife and I say we created our best friends. We all get together at least once or twice a month.”
Then he said, “Gary, do you know how unusual that is? Most of the parents I know have been ruined by their kids and are constantly bailing them out.”
I said, “The difference with our family is we gave our kids, Jesus.”
My wife and I have 3 children. When they were young, our main goal was to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).
Today, they are all 30-something parents with children of their own. And along with their spouses, they are raising their children the same way they were raised — by giving them Jesus.
Recently, our oldest son, Brett, gave a speech at the Christian Worldview Film Festival on our purpose in life. He taught from Colossians 1, that our purpose is not the occupation we choose. It’s not about being happy or becoming rich or famous. Our purpose in life is to have a relationship with God who created us.
Colossians 1:15-17 says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God and everything was created by Him and…wait for it…created FOR HIM. You and I were created to have a relationship with Jesus. That is our purpose in living.
The Apostle Paul described his purpose this way, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
Death steals everything you have on earth. The only thing that death can’t take away is your relationship with Jesus. After our time on earth is done, we will live forever in one of two places: with Jesus or without Him — either in God’s family or without any family. The choice is ours.
“The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him. May your father and mother rejoice; may she who gave you birth be joyful!” - Proverbs 23:24-25
Personal note: God has blessed our family with artistic talents. Our daughter is a graphic designer and our sons are filmmakers. Today, I’m highlighting our sons and their work in movies and on stage.
Brett Varvel
Our son, Brett, is a professional actor, director, editor, producer, an Emmy Award Winner and the founder of House of Grace Films. He gave the keynote address at the Christian Worldview Film Festival on March 16. You can watch it here. His talk begins at the 19:30 mark. I think you’ll be blessed as he describes our true purpose.
Me, my wife: Carol, our son: Brett and his wife, Christina after Brett’s speech at the film festival. By the way, Christina is an author. She wrote a book about her experience suffering the loss of 2 miscarriages. You can get her book, Living Hope, here. Brett and Christina are the parents of 6 children — 4 children on earth and 2 in heaven.
Drew Varvel
Our son, Drew, is a professional videographer, an Emmy Award Winner and he has a Youtube channel. He also directs high school plays at his alma mater, Bethesda Christian School in Brownsburg, IN. In his latest production, “Singin’ in the Rain,” he literally made it rain on stage.
Drew’s productions are not your typical school plays. The sets, sound, lighting and performances are far more elaborate than most large schools with thousands of students. Bethesda is very small. Graduating classes are typically 20-30 students.
LEGACY
From left: Drew, me and Brett wearing our men’s fastpitch softball team jerseys. Calling ourselves Legacy was Brett’s idea and it represents not only a tradition of playing fastpitch in our family (FYI: I coached my daughter, Ashley who who was a pretty good pitcher in jr. high and high school), but we, Varvels, have also followed Jesus Christ for generations: My grandparents, my parents, my wife and me, our children and now our grandchildren.
The Varvel family also made a couple of Christian movies. Brett and I co-wrote the screenplays for The War Within and The Board (below). My sons and I along with my brother and my son-in-law, Daron Day, acted in these films.
The Board was produced in 2009. This 34-minute short film uses apologetics to share the gospel in a man’s soul depicted as 6 boardroom members: Mind, Emotion, Will, Conscience, Memory and Heart. It has been translated into 5 languages and has been seen around the world.
In 2014, we produced, The War Within. It is a look at the struggle within the soul of a young Christian and the power of God that changes his future. It won 7 film festival awards.
Final point: Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Any good thing that we do is through the power of God who gives us the ability to do good things. So find your purpose in Him.
Gary,
I’m really happy that your family is doing so well, but I just have to say that there are no guarantees. We also raised our children in the Lord, and all three have taken a different path. This is an absolute that I just can’t stand. I really love your take on life in regards to your Biblical worldview most of the time, but this one hurts those of us who have seemingly failed. Congratulations on your beautiful family.
Thank you, Gary. We all forget, at times, that in our happiness others might be hurting. I do appreciate your faithfulness to God and your willingness to share your faith and take a stand for Him. I really do admire your family, and will continue to follow you. I do pray for my children daily-many times more than once! Trusting Him always to will and work for His good pleasure. Please forgive me for being so sensitive. Sometimes I just impatient in the waiting. I’ll admit that. Thanks for your quick response. Blessings to you in all your endeavors for the Lord.