I ran into a student the other day who used to come to our college group. After doing the normal greeting thing, I asked her what she was up to. She said that she had just moved in with her boyfriend. I asked her how that was working out for her and she responded, “I just had to do what I had to do to be happy.” My heart instantly broke for her.
I think that people still have this idea (and it is a fallacy) that the parameters God sets up are meant to rob us of life instead of giving us life. Nothing could be further from the truth! It would be the equivalent of viewing the side railings on the side of a 100ft cliff as cumbersome. In John 10:10 Jesus says, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” The longer I live and the longer I serve in ministry I become more and more convinced of the validity of both of the statements that Jesus makes there.
One, that there is an enemy whose goal is to rob people of life. I think my sense of this is lately is exaggerated because I spent the last two weeks on college campuses. You can just sense the quest for life that is burning in them, and you can also see that the ways they are attempting to fulfill that desire are simply letting them down. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy – and indeed he is doing just that.
On the other hand, I have the privileged of spending time with students who are experiencing the life that is found in Christ. The cool thing about it is that they are living the way that God designed us to live AND they are having a better time doing it than people who are “doing what they have to do to be happy.”
There is life in following.
