What Is Life?
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The question...
The question...
Ok, so let’s start with this. And this will be obvious to you I think. If I were to go downtown like on Market Ave. during lunch time…or up to the food court at Belden or maybe even over to Walmart…and I just started asking people the question…What is life?…I think I would get a whole bunch of different answers. You think so?
Me too.
I also think that if I were to randomly go through the group here and online…and ask the question, “What is life?”…I’m pretty sure that even us…as a church family, would give a bunch of different answers Right?
Now what would guide our answers or maybe even influence our answers?
Some of you might answer according to how you woke up this morning. Haha…How many cups of coffee or tea you’ve had or haven’t had yet.
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So you might answer according to how you woke up…or didn’t wake up.
Some of you might answer according to something you’re walking through right now…whether that be something tough…or something very good. But sometimes life is like that proverbial ‘rollercoaster’ and we selectively view life out of our present experience.
So some of us, and probably many others, would answer out of our present tense experiences.
Some might answer through your personality. Ever greet someone who’s that person… you know...”How’s it going?” “Can’t get any better than this!” or “Livin the dream!” ....yeah. How many of you know that person?
haha…how many of you want to sometimes punch that person? I’m just kidding. Just kidding. No…but in that we have two perspectives on life don’t we. Life is good no matter what’s happening…or life can be up and down…and tough...
But what is life? I guess in a way there’s another similar question... “What is the meaning of life?”
I looked this up on the internet....you know…that place where you go to find the truth about everything!
And I found that life is...
the opposite of non-life.
another site talked about that if something has and ending such as death…then it is alive.
Some websites went to the textbook and read something like this....a living thing is something who’s attributes include responsiveness, energy transformation through metabolism and reproduction.
another site…and actually this came up on quite of few sites…even sites that were secondary education forums (Phd’s and philosphers and professors). Life is what you make it. You define it for yourself. It means what you want it to mean.
One doctor, working through a lot of faulty philosophy, ended up saying that the meaning of life is simply what we choose to give it.
Be who you want to be. Ant that will give meaning and purpose to your life.
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Personally, I’m not sure that is getting us closer to what we sense and feel is reality…I mean some of the basic things maybe…we’re a collection of cells that are “alive.” But knowing that we’re a bunch of collections of cells that are alive…and this group of cells is searching after meaning should tell us something more right? We know…as far as we can tell…that we’re not just soft robots....there’s more to us.
So for a time here,
Let’s see where scripture might take us.
I think most here would agree that a great place to start would be Genesis…but I’m going to go way into the book…into the New Testament and start with something that Jesus said. This is from John 10:10.
The thief comes only so that he can steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
So let’s look at this just for a second and see what Jesus is telling us. There is a thing called life -
Someone wants to steal it (destroy it)
Someone wants to give it … fully or abundantly.
The context for this passage is when Jesus is talking about He, himself, being the good shepherd…and we’re the sheep. He, as the shepherd came to give us a great life…and there’s the thief who wants to steal our life away.
I think another thing can be assumed here…at least for many of us....we want to have a more abundant life…that life that Jesus is talking about.
If Jesus came to give it…we must not have it yet…or at least fully like he’s saying.
And I think that we can all sense that. We have roller coaster days or years…and we’d like to have just all perfect days.
What is life?
Now…if Jesus has come to bring this life to us…it probably means that we don’t have it like it was intended in the first place.
SLIDE We’ve lost something - We’re trying to get it back.
Let’s go back to Genesis now.
You’re all familiar with these passages.
Genesis 1:27 says
So God created humankind in his image, in the likeness of God he created him, male and female he created them.
We know that life for humans is different than animals or plants. Humans were created, made, in God’s likeness. That’s something special. And here’s how that happened.
Genesis 2:7 …it says
when Yahweh God formed the man of dust from the ground, and he blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
John 1:1-3 says this
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This one was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through him, and apart from him not one thing came into being that has come into being.
Next we read John saying this.... John 1:4
In him was life, and the life was the light of humanity.
In Acts Paul writes this about Jesus death … Acts 3:15
And you killed the originator of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses!
SLIDE Something in life has been lost…and we can’t get it back on our own.
If we go back to Genesis we find that God, after humanity has been created, given boundaries…and then sins…God finds it necessary to have them leave the Garden (His presence). He specifically says that they are not to eat of the tree of life. Meaning…and he says this…we will now experience death.
Now, lets just get real simple. Death, when you think about it, is opposed to life. We know what’s wrong…and it isn’t just the day to day troubles that get us down…its that there’s an end…and it looks like there shouldn’t be. Something is wrong…and we can’t get it back on our own.
Paul, in Romans 8:10-11 talks about this. That in our bodies, in our lives, we carry around death. Wow…that’s an encouraging image isn’t it?
Sometimes we think that to live…truly life…truly life…we need to be free to do anything we want. True happiness is in living how you want to live.
Let’s look at this for a minute…and we can just look at a couple of other living creatures. I love to watch fish in an aquarium or in a lake or whatever…or a bird flying in the sky.
I’ve often heard people say this…to be as free as a bird…or free as a fish to swim or fly wherever you’d want.
Well, think about an abundant life for a fish. We talked about this in youth group the other night. True Freedom! Freedom in life! Being like a fish or a bird.
Take the fish… well the fish can’t do anything it wants. First of all, it has to stay in water. It’s body was designed to take oxygen in by a certain process. It needs the water. Next, certain fish need either salt or fresh water…a few can tolerate either or but for a time. But for the most part…there’s a specific type of water types of fish need.
Next…temperature of water.
Next…pressure…some fish can life near the surface, some need to be very deep.
Next…predators…some need to be out in the open, some need to be in coral.
Some can swim distances …and need to. Some need to stay within just a few hundred feet of where they were born.
Some need sunlight some need darkness
Most need to be near their food supply is....
sufficient to say…Fish have boundaries…they can’t just do whatever the heck they want to have a great life. It looks like a great life is by design for them.
Might it be that a great life is by design for us too…and what we’ve been fed (that to really live - do whatever you want) is really a lie.
We’ve lost something - and we can’t get it back on our own.
Romans 6:23 for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life....
To fully get life back, we must trust the one who gave it to us in the first place.
For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we may walk in them.
But now in Christ Jesus you, the ones who once were far away, have become near by the blood of Christ.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Paul writes in Romans 8:10-11
Now we know that we’re in this time period…when things are not perfect yet…but there’s this thing that the Bible calls hope…hope that we can be sure of… that we are being recreated and will be, one day, with God forever, as it was in the beginning.
We know that between then and now, we will have troubles and trials and testing and growth and ....yeah…we all know what that means right?
But in the middle of all that time here’s what we want.
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