Does anybody hear an echo?
“Sometimes I feel like I’m living a meaningless life, and I get frightened. I have no idea where this insecurity comes from, but it’s a God-sized hole. If I knew; I’d fill it, and I’d be on my way.”* --Shia LaBeouf, at age 25, multi-millionaire star of the “Indiana Jones” and “Transformers” movies.
“Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. I think, ‘God, it’s got to be more than this.’ I mean this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be … I love playing football and I love being quarterback for this team. But at the same time, I think there are a lot of other parts about me that I’m trying to find.”—Tom Brady, New England Patriots all-pro, multiple Superbowl MVP.
These guys should have it made, right? But it’s obvious they don’t. That’s because our biggest need in life isn’t money, sex or power. It’s life itself.
Not “life” as many would define it, but life as Jesus describes it in John’s Gospel.
Jesus promises His followers “life abundant, life to the full, to the max, and life that never ends” (John 3:16; 10:10). He doesn’t make a big distinction between abundant life here and eternal life forever. One flows into the other.
He describes “life” even further, in a prayer to our heavenly Father God: “Now this is eternal life [better pay attention when Jesus is this clear]; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
When will we learn to pursue the substance of real life instead of the shadows?
(*Dr William Brown, President, in Cedarvilles’s Torch, Spring-Summer 2011, p. 3, originally in a 2009 Parade magazine interview. **“60 Minutes” interview, youtube.com)
by Pastor Rick Sams
Does anybody hear an echo?
“Sometimes I feel like I’m living a meaningless life, and I get frightened. I have no idea where this insecurity comes from, but it’s a God-sized hole. If I knew; I’d fill it, and I’d be on my way.”* --Shia LaBeouf, at age 25, multi-millionaire star of the “Indiana Jones” and “Transformers” movies.
“Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. I think, ‘God, it’s got to be more than this.’ I mean this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be … I love playing football and I love being quarterback for this team. But at the same time, I think there are a lot of other parts about me that I’m trying to find.”—Tom Brady, New England Patriots all-pro, multiple Superbowl MVP.
These guys should have it made, right? But it’s obvious they don’t. That’s because our biggest need in life isn’t money, sex or power. It’s life itself.
Not “life” as many would define it, but life as Jesus describes it in John’s Gospel.
Jesus promises His followers “life abundant, life to the full, to the max, and life that never ends” (John 3:16; 10:10). He doesn’t make a big distinction between abundant life here and eternal life forever. One flows into the other.
He describes “life” even further, in a prayer to our heavenly Father God: “Now this is eternal life [better pay attention when Jesus is this clear]; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
When will we learn to pursue the substance of real life instead of the shadows?
(*Dr William Brown, President, in Cedarvilles’s Torch, Spring-Summer 2011, p. 3, originally in a 2009 Parade magazine interview. **“60 Minutes” interview, youtube.com)
