Searching

 

The world is a beautiful and amazing place offering so many opportunities and joys.

The world is dark and scary and you don’t know how to navigate it.

How do you “do” life? Why do you have so many worries and hang-ups when everyone else seems to be perfect and have everything under control?

Except they’re not and they don’t.

You see them crash into the downward spiral that you fear might engulf you: they’re just as adrift as you are.

You search for something to anchor yourself, something to rely on that'll give you a sense of worth.

You look to other people. 

You see the sense of belonging that local gang members feel. It’s a type of family. They look out for each other; they have money, cars, clothes, drugs. It’s easy, the high life; you feel appreciated, respected. But it isn’t free, it comes at such a cost and once you’re in, getting out is not so easy. How many elderly gangsters do you see? How many tell you about the lasting damage their bodies suffer from old wounds and drug use? How many can’t sleep at night, even with a gun under their pillow? How many feel used and scared, never knowing when the youngsters in their own or rival gangs will try to kill them as a sign of strength? How many cry themselves to sleep in prison when no one can see them and none of their gang brothers cares? How many are tortured by thoughts of wasted lives and lost loved ones? How many are wearing masks of violence and anger to hide just how lost and frightened they really are?

You think, "If I only had more money I’d be all right, all my problems would disappear."

Some would. You’d be able to put food on the table, pay the rent, send your children to good schools with nice uniforms and qualified teachers. But you would be the same. You could afford to disguise and numb your feelings with alcohol, drugs, shopping, fast cars, expensive food and holidays, but the hole inside you wouldn't be filled. To the outside world you might be a success but inside you'd feel like an imposter.

Everybody needs to know who they are, what their purpose is in life and that there is hope for something better.

Some people spend all their days chasing excitement, leaping from one experience to the next, whether they’re billionaires in a space race or members of a township gang. The rush of adrenalin helps distract from the serious thoughts that threaten to make life uncomfortable.

Some live lives of very little excitement, keeping to a familiar routine where everything is known. There are no surprises and life seems under control and comfortable or at least predictable.

But life isn’t like that. It can’t be put neatly in a box, whether that box is labelled “Excitement” or “Routine”. The world we live in has been turned upside down by the choices of humanity. It’s turned upside down by selfishness, disease and war, by financial crashes and famine, and there are things from which neither money nor health can protect us.

When the things we rely on are swept away and life has lost its foundations where can we turn?

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Jesus has been here from the beginning of creation. When there was nothing there was him. He’s seen it all and is familiar with all the insecurities and challenges facing us. He was there in the perfection of creation before humanity’s choices broke everything and introduced death, suffering, toil and disease into the world. He’s been with us ever since, sharing in the difficulties and pain. The gap that we so desperately try to fill is caused by the breaking of our relationship with him. We sense we’re adrift, that there should be more to life than what we make ourselves, and our souls cannot find rest until we rest in him.

Does it sound too easy, as if all your problems could be solved by starting a relationship with Jesus?

Yes and no.

You can never be the person you were meant to be until you connect with Jesus, acknowledge who he is and see yourself through his eyes in all your glory and shame. Glory because you were made in the image of God. Whether you’re a duchess or a street-sweeper, a professor or a plumber, your value in God’s eyes is the same. You reflect his glory, you’re part of his family, you should feel neither superior nor inferior to any other human being. You are of such worth that Jesus willingly died to enable a relationship with you. 

You also share the shame of being a member of the human race, the race which rejected God’s goodness and tried to steal his throne, the race which inflicted brokenness upon the whole of creation and continues to exploit and ravage it.

We cannot be properly ourselves until we realise who we were created to be, how we’ve lost that and how Jesus has provided a way to regain our true humanity. Some people spend the whole of their lives searching and never fill the gap, never commit. They may spend their lives “doing good”, attempting to work their way to satisfaction but discover that nothing’s enough, there’s always more to do, they can never be good enough. Others sign up to a stunted relationship with God, full of laws and “do nots” which they in turn try to impose on others to make themselves feel better. Others simply deny his existence, or live in a way that suggests that.

Jesus came so that we “may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

There are expectations when you acknowledge Jesus as the Lord and Saviour he is, but they are the expectations which enable you to live life to its fullest. They are not cramping and enslaving but freeing and life-giving. You’re released from the need to find your worth in others’ opinions as you know that the King of the universe loves, has chosen and has died for you. You: whoever you are, whatever you’ve done or not done, however other people have judged you: he wants you.

Jesus doesn’t need you, he chooses you. He chooses to involve you in his work in the world. He chooses to work with you to turn you into the best you you can be; the one he knows is there underneath all your imperfections and wrong-doings.

Jesus fills the gap in your life and when you realise that you can face anything. He promises, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20); even in the face of the difficulties he doesn’t promise will disappear in this life.

Rejoice and trust in him.

Be set free and find your anchor.