Crazy morning. My wife and I put our daughter on the school bus for the first time. There's something about seeing a five year old climb those steps and look out the window and drive off in the distance that sure brought a sense of reality that my world is different than it was just a couple of weeks ago. As I was thinking through this reality, I jumped in the Jeep to head to the church when a song came on the local country station. Darryl Worley was singing "Sounds Like Life To Me," and some of the lyrics stood out...
He was singing about a buddy who was going through some tough times...
- the car's falling apart
- the washer quit
- he just put his mom in the nursing home
- the baby is cutting teeth
- bills need to be paid
Maybe the specifics don't apply, but maybe they do. Or maybe there are other things in life breaking down. Who knows? But we all understand this man. Who hasn't felt completely overwhelmed with life? Who hasn't felt as though your world is crashing down and you just can't fix it.
Well, the singer has some advice for his buddy. The chorus goes something like...
Sounds like life to me, it ain’t no fantasy
It’s just a common case of everyday reality
Man, I know it’s tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk, you’re caught up in some tragedy
It sounds like life to me
I don't know about everyone else, but as much as I would like to "suck it up" and just move on with life, that doesn't seem to always work. Sometimes I can't pull on the old bootstraps hard enough. And there lies the problem...
We experience this everyday reality, yet the problems and pain still exist, and life gets more and more exhausting.
You know, it doesn't have to be this way. I believe there's a better life to be lived. However, this doesn't happen by the good ole college try. It doesn't occur through positive thinking or a weekly yoga class.
Real life occurs only through union with Jesus Christ. It’s in Christ where we're able to experience “every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3). It’s in Christ where we become “the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21). It’s in Christ where we find ourselves “alive in God” (Romans 6:11). Real life begins and ends with Christ’s own words found in John 15:5.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
In Christ…Now that sounds like life to me.
