People go to church for all sorts of reasons: they're looking for a community, some place to "belong;" they want a positive influence on the lives of their children; they want some place in which to invest their lives in something they think matters; they've always gone to church because this is how they were raised.

 

But sooner or later, most people go to church because they discover that they need a fresh sense of God in their lives, and the church more than any other place seems to offer them that relationship with God. Perhaps a medical illustration will help.

 

The Symptoms. We humans were apparently not created merely to respond to life through our instincts. We reflect on life, we search for things in life to meet "needs" we perceive we have that are not purely physical, but are rather spiritual. We are "hungry" for some relationship beyond ourselves that no food, no physical gratification, no human relationship, and no amount of money or power can ever satisfy. As the great Christian thinker, C. S. Lewis, once put it: "If we are hungry for something that nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical conclusion is that we were not made for this world. We were made for another world." Simply put, we were made for God, and until we come home to that one relationship that satisfies, we are condemned to go through life with a gnawing hunger that won't go away.
 

 

The Diagnosis. Many of us, however, instead of coming "home," back to that One in relationship to Whom we discover our "soul's secret signature," run all over life trying to satisfy our hunger for God with a "junk food" diet. It never works because we were created for relationship with God, and nothing else will satisfy. He's the "fuel" on which we were designed to run. And so, trying to run our lives on everything but the one thing for which we were designed, our lives descend into chaos, confusion, and self-contempt. The Bible calls it "sin." Sin is not so much some particular violation of some particular "law," such as "stop on red and go on green." Sin is deeper, more all-encompassing, more systemic than that. It is the refusal to be what God originally created you to be. It is to attempt to live your life without purpose, without meaning, and finally, without hope. Imagine a situation in which Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play were to say to author: "All right, Will. I get the idea. I see where this whole thing is going. Why don't you take the day off and I'll take it from here." Of course, it could never happen  because there is no "Hamlet" apart from the creative imagination of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare as Hamlet's author "thought him up," so to speak, and if Hamlet tries to be "Hamlet" without Shakespeare, he will not thereby "save himself" or discover his true self, he will only self-destruct. In the same way, you and I were made for God. He is the author of our lives; He "thought us up" like characters in a play, and apart from His will and plan and purpose for our lives, we self-destruct.

 

The Cure. Coming home, coming back to God, saying "no" to self and "yes" to God, which, because we were created both by God and for God, turns out to be a "yes" to self--this is our only hope for meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. It is surrendering to God's purpose for our lives following the way God Himself revealed to us by sending His son, Jesus of Nazareth, to live among us, to experience just how hard it is to be what God created us to be, and yet who nonetheless lived a life in complete surrender to God's purpose for him, who "played his part" perfectly. Because Jesus is now the Risen Lord, he is no longer bound to just one time and place, but can be experienced everywhere and with everyone, inside us and not just outside us, as a Living Presence who slowly, inexorably bends us back to the Creator Whose purpose for our life alone is our salvation. He will come into our lives when we invite him to do so, and beginning from that very moment, he lives with us and guides us back home to where we belong. Though this relationship begins with a moment, a choice, a prayer, it does not end there. It is a life-long journey Christians call "discipleship," a word that means "learning" from Jesus who we really are, why we're here, and what we're really about.

 

If after reading this you decide to make this commitment and begin this journey, we'd loved to hear from you about it. Get in touch with us and let us know. If you'd like to learn more about this life-long journey with Jesus, you have my personal invitation to join us in our next Exploring Membership Class. I hope to see you there.

 

R. Wayne Stacy, PhD