Does it Work?

By Mike Glenn

Americans are doggedly practical. Rarely do you find a group of people sitting around a table discussing the finer points of philosophical theories about the meaning of life. For all the reading I’ve done in theology, I rarely have the occasion to bring up my insights into Bultmann or Barth. For most of us, our discussions are basic and simple. How do we get our lives to work? And if they’re working, how do we get them to work better? Tell me the age of the people in the conversation and I can give you a pretty good idea of what they’re talking about. Better, tell me the age of the children of the people involved and I’ll tell you exactly what they’re talking about.

Parents of infants just want their child to sleep. So, the advice is how long you rock them, what kind of white noise machines will help their child to sleep and how dark the room should be.

Parents of toddlers just want their children to be quiet and stop tearing up the house.

Parents of teenagers don’t know what to do with the attitude they get back from their children. They want their children safe. Funny, when their kids were little, the parents couldn’t sleep. Now that they are older, the parents still can’t sleep.

Parents of grown children worry about the economy and job markets and if there are grandchildren, the whole cycle of worry starts all over again.

For all the advice, no one can figure out this thing we call “life.” We don’t know how to live our moments and days so the things we really treasure are the priorities of our time. We work too much and our families suffer. But aren’t we supposed to work to provide good things for our families? We watch too many screens. We don’t know how to handle our anger, disappointments, and frustrations in our lives. We don't know how to get along with our parents and our neighbors. Work is hard and demanding, but most of the time, it lacks meaning and purpose. We try to volunteer, but there are so many problems and the problems are so big, we don’t feel like we’re making a difference. So, what’s the point?

Add to this labyrinth of challenges the fact that we’re facing problems no one in history has ever faced. The internet has connected the whole world. Great. Really? The problem with being connected to the whole world is mistakes made in one place cause consequences somewhere else. Our data is online and can be hacked by people who mean us harm. With a couple of well aimed keystrokes, someone can steal our money, our credit, even our identity.

With our lives this complicated, no wonder a lot of people are skeptical about taking life advice from a carpenter’s son who lived in first century Galilee. I can understand that. On the other hand, we’d be foolish to ignore the insights and wisdom offered by the smartest man to ever have lived in our world. Whatever else you may want to say about Jesus, Dallas Willard writes in The Divine Conspiracy, we have to admit Jesus understands life in a way no one else does. He understands what it means to be human, to be tired and hungry, and abandoned by His friends. Not only that, Jesus knows how to live with love, kindness, generosity, and compassion regardless of the circumstances in which He found Himself.

Jesus understands it all begins with forgiveness. First, God forgiving us in Jesus Christ and then, us forgiving each other.  Life is too short and grudges are too heavy for us to spend our lives carrying them around. Now, forgiveness isn’t reconciliation. Sometimes, reconciliation isn’t possible. Forgiveness, through Christ, is always possible and necessary for a well lived life. Forgiveness is releasing the other person from the expectation they can fix what they did. No one can do that. Only Jesus can heal and restore the damage of sin – whether the sin is ours or someone else’s.

From there, Jesus moves us to purpose. Remember, as the old preachers used to say, we are saved from and we are saved for. We are saved from our sins and saved for some ministry. All of us, regardless of age, have to know why we were born. Moving on from our past and moving to a kingdom future. That’s the life that we’re all looking for and this is life Jesus offers.

If we want to live our best life –and that seems to be everyone’s mantra these days– then we have to start with Jesus. Jesus is one who knows life better than any of us and following HIm is the fastest way to get there.