I am … the Life. John 14:6

Life is so very precious. As I get older and closer to the end of this journey, the grains of sand trickle faster through the hour glass. I often am left wondering, “How did this happen? How did my life go by so quickly?” The answer? It happens to everyone.

Every second of life is gift from our Creator. Too often we forget to say thank you for the most basic fact that we exist! If It is counter cultural to believe God alone breathed life into every human being, then how much more must believers thank the Giver.

My husband and I have been blessed with a “good life. ” We are not hungry or thirsty or homeless. We do not suffer persecution or displacement. Except for the hiccups of ageing, our health is decent. All told, my life is free, comfortable and secure and compared to 90% of the world we are enviable. But comfort, security and freedom are external trappings which do not speak to deeper questions. Why am I here on this planet? Is there a purpose to my life and what’s it all about anyway?

It’s the million dollar question asked by the wise and the foolish throughout the ages. If our life’s purpose is worldly fame, fortune and success, then why does the soul constantly itch for something else? Why the restless heart? St. Augustine of Hippo realized that only God answers what the heart longs for.
“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

It is so simple. Our life is made for God and we will not rest until He fills the spiritual canyon in our hearts. Until we make peace with God by accepting His Son Jesus into our lives, those canyons are arid wastelands. When Jesus told the disciples,“I am the way and the truth and the life” He was not offering external purpose or meaning to the disciples’ lives. Jesus radically offered His own life in place of theirs. He was describing a supernatural exchange through the Holy Spirit: life in this world for life in the kingdom of God. Jesus is the Life when we are reborn. John testified that through the Word of Life we receive the promise of eternal life with the Father.

…this is the Word of life. And this is the life that was revealed; we have seen it and testified to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.…1.John 1-2
And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life. 1 John 2:25

Why do we struggle against the Word of God? Why is it so hard to completely surrender our lives to Him? Why do we cling to the heart’s restlessness and dissatisfaction. ? If we’re completely honest, haven’t we all wished for a “do-over” Hasn’t there been a choice or decision or relationship or failure we wanted to live differently? Wouldn’t a “rebirth” of certain destructive outcomes be better? I’ve seen my past in the hourglass and it wasn’t always pretty. But when I finally stopped resisting and accepted Christ, when Jesus gave me Himself, I found purpose, hope and a quieted heart. We aren’t reborn to relive what has been. We are reborn into Him, the Life, present and eternal.