I Am The Life Series

John 14:6

December 2, 2007

I am the Life

In 2006 a study was done on the lifespan of people. It was determined that the average person would be alive for around 65 years. That is 3,380 weeks, or 23,725 days, or 569,400 hours, or 34,164,000 minutes, or 2,049,840,000 seconds that the average person is alive. Of course I just wasted like 10 of those seconds…so sorry about that. When you look at that…do you ever wonder: why? I mean when you see that life is really only a few thousand weeks, or a few million hours do you ever wonder what’s the point? What is life? How are we to understand what the purpose of life is? Do we exist simply as a countdown of seconds, a perpetual ticking clock? What is this life?

Jesus says “I am the Way the Truth and the Life no one comes to the father except through me.” What is life? Jesus boldly says that He is life. What does He mean? What is life all about? What life is Jesus talking about?

This life is not always fun. While there certainly are good moments, sometimes this life can be hard, and full of pain. We have this void inside of us…this emptiness that we cannot understand to we need to fill. Sometimes we just feel so alone…so hurt…so burdened. Where do we turn in such times of pain? To things that satisfy. The most obvious of these things: alcohol. Drink enough alcohol and everything seems better. It is the lovely little vacation for your mind. I mean sure it impairs your judgment but that’s half the fun right? Alcohol makes life’s problems seem bearable…tolerable, or at least manageable. Alcohol makes you feel good…it helps you forget. Alcohol satisfies. At least…that’s what the world says. Of course there are some hurts too great for alcohol to heal…so there are drugs. These are the ultimate escape, the ultimate euphoria. Take drugs and your life will be care free. All your worries go away…and life is good. Right? That’s what the world says. The world says that it has all the answers. The world says that it can satisfy your every desire. Let’s not forget our lustful desires now. The world has an answer to that too. The world has pornography…and sex. Sure all those Christian do-gooders say wait until marriage…but sex feels good…enjoy it. Go on, you do not have to be married…you don’t even have to be serious. Sex is fun, you had a long hard week…go out, have some fun. That is what life is all about. Having fun, getting what you want, living it up. The world boasts that the happiest people are those who satisfy their desires.

But the world is full of all kinds of lies. For years I worked in restaurants. It was really the only job I had in High school and college. I cooked, worked on the line, and waited tables. It is an interesting life. You see some waiters wait tables to get through school, or on the side while other waiters wait tables all their lives. There is good money to be made in waiting tables. If you are good at your job you can make a great deal of money. The best part is: there is really no responsibility in it. You want to take time off, schedule a vacation and take time off. Want to take a light week, get people to cover your shifts. For the most part waiters can work when they want, and get off when the do not want to. Yet for what it is they make a good amount of money. So what you have is a job that is low on responsibility, that is not difficult, that does not require much of you, that at worst is stressful at times, that pays really well. Waiting is a pretty sweet gig if you have the personality for it. A lot of people love waiting. I noticed one thing about waiters though. At every restaurant I worked at all the waiters would for the most part seem happy on the surface. The go around wearing a smile all day long. Most waiters that I met would go out after work. They would go party, drink, and smoke either at a bar or at someone’s house. No body really parties like waiters do. They seem to have such a great life. Yet I started to notice a trend with the waiters I worked with…they all seemed to be empty inside. Once you cracked that surface they all seemed lost… alone… depressed. They started drinking and partying because it was fun…but now…they do it just to cover up the pain…just to get away from it all. All of these things that the world promises will satisfy…but they don’t. They drain instead.