I've been following
Jesus for a long time now. So long that
I have a hard time remembering what life is like apart from Jesus. I think after someone has been "living
the dream" long enough they tend to forget just how great they have
it. They eventually stop comparing their
abundant life with their previous life and the past mixes in with the present
in one blurry mess. And when I say someone I mean I. Is it possible for me to have so much joy for
so long that I'm no longer thankful for it?
Can a person be so blessed that it becomes a curse? I think most of the time if someone were to
ask me, "How do you have so much peace in your life?" I would think
about it for a minute and say, "I don't know, I guess that's just how I
am." I forget that I haven't always
had peace, that my life hasn't always been great. I forget that I used to search for peace and
couldn't find it. I forget that
everything I have, everything I am, came and continues to come from God.
Today I was reading
a little passage from the Gospel of John.
Jesus is talking to a big crowd and he says, "Don't work for food
that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternity." What?
Talk about being counter-cultural!
Jesus is encouraging people not to work for their food! Then he says, "The bread of God is he
who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world… I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me
shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
I think the point
Jesus is making is that we people tend to think that food gives life. You need food to eat and air to breathe in
order to live, if you don't eat, you die.
But it's really a misconception.
Food doesn't give life, God gives life!
We don't need food, we need Jesus.
It's like believing fish come from fish-hooks. If you focus enough time and energy on
gathering enough fish hooks you'll catch a fish! But just because you take your fish from the
hook doesn't mean the hook is what is providing fish. Fishes don't come from fish hooks. The lake is what provides fish. In the same way it's not food, but Jesus who
gives life. "For my flesh is true
food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood
abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of
the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is
the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and
died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."
It's a good reminder
for me that everything that is life comes from Jesus. Anything that is good in my life, any peace
or joy or fruit is directly from Jesus.
Anything good in my life came because of Jesus, not because I was
seeking something good. Anyone trying to
focus on obtaining food is missing the point.
If you just get to know the source of all life then you won't have to
worry about food! Not just
metaphorically, literally you won't need to worry about food, you won't need to
worry about a job, you won't need to worry about a spouse, you won't need to worry
about purpose, you won't need to worry about death. If you are looking for peace, if you are
looking for life, then you need to stop focusing on peace and life and start
focusing on the source of peace, the source of life. Looking back, I guess that's what happened to
me. I never did try to find a way to
"live the dream"; I never assumed I could find fulfillment or peace
or joy by searching for them and I was much too skeptical to believe that
income sustained life. The hope that I
found in Jesus lured me into sacrificing all of those things in order to follow
him and then somewhere along the way I was surprised to find that he was the
source of everything I really wanted anyway.
Sometimes I forget that.
