I don’t think it needs to be said that
the world is full of brokenness, that at some point in our coming of age, we
had realized that life is imperfect. However, if you are of the Christian
faith, it is possible to live the fullest of life on this side of heaven. It
was not lip service when Jesus said in John 10:10 that he came that we might
have life and have it to the full or in John 7:38 when he said that whoever
believes in him, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from
within them. God also made numerous attempts to describe what life should be
like for those who believe in Him through various metaphors and imagery such as
an olive tree flourishing in a dry, wasteland (Psalm 52:8) or a tree planted
along a riverbank (Psalm 1:3). Of course God, with his initiating nature and
sovereignty would always reach out to us but I am convinced that He also does
not force – therefore, our experience of God and of life with respect to Him largely
depends on the extent to which we allow Him to get involved in our lives. To
provide a clear imagery, it is like inviting a guest over for dinner. If our
interaction with him ends at the end of the dinner then his impact and
influence will also end right there but if we invite him frequently and maybe
allow him to stay after dinner to talk some more or to fix a few things at our
house, then his influence will be greater and our relationship with Him deeper
and better. Now think about this guest being the creator of the universe
(Genesis 1), the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13), the one who created us
and knows us from the inside out (Psalm 139), the one who knew us even before we
were born (Jeremiah 1:5), the one who has great plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11)
and the one who wants to spend eternity with us (John 3:16). I heard it once
said that the first sin the human race committed was disbelief in the
sufficiency of God, the suspicion that he might be harboring something better
for us, other than what He has already provided – and I think this is one of
the reasons why sometimes or most of the time, it is hard for us to completely
surrender to this kind of God despite His many good promises, even despite of
all the great things He has already done in our lives. This suspicion is the
reason why most of the time, we want to let Him in – everything is formal and
nice, food is great, dinnerware is perfect but we don’t want anything beyond
the pleasantries. We don’t want Him to see the dirty clothes in the laundry
room; the rotten, disorganized filth in the basement or the closets full of
random, hodgepodge of junk that we have chosen to fill our lives, instead. We
want just a little bit of God, but not all of Him. For some reason, we are just
comfortable where we are – even if despite all the materialism, we are empty,
or regardless of the big crowds and the cacophonies of laughter everywhere, we
are lonely, hopeless people- that we have to rely on external things to fill us
with joy. We are eating crumbs the dogs have left behind instead of sitting at
the banquet table.
But the truth is God is dying to fill
our lamps with unlimited oil, to give us peace and joy that go beyond
understanding. God is dying to heal our broken hearts, to help us sort through
our challenges, to help us understand who we are and why we are here. Sure,
there are random things in the world that can make us happy: Christmas (and
everything that comes with it), summer fun, family vacations, chocolate,
coffee, a gorgeous sunny day - but those
are just glimpses and hints of His glory. They are not meant to fill the
God-shaped hole that He alone could fill. God wants to reveal Himself to you.
If you will only let Him in – you could even skip the dinner part.
