Humans are extraordinarily good at finding problems.
Entire careers, from prescribing medicine to business consulting, running computer diagnostics to reporting on politics – so many entities and endeavors are centered around a common task: finding problems.
This comes as no surprise if one considers the never-ending supply of problems to be found on this planet.
The list is too long and this article too short to describe them all, but just in 2020 alone we’ve seen massive amounts of sickness, death, and destruction at the hands of COVID-19. We’ve seen the political and racial wedge be driven further into the divide in America. In some instances, our leaders failed and people have died. In other instances, we’ve seen angry rioters burn down buildings in protest.
There is no hiding or masking the problems with our world. They’re relatively easy to find. What we can’t seem to find is the answer.
Because humanity has tried everything. The attempted remedies have been just as numerous as the problems. Drugs for the sickness. Legislature for the injustice. Protests for the killings. Online spewing for the disagreements.
And at the end of the day, none of it ever works. The drugs wear off, the laws fall short, the protests break up, and the online world moves on. However, the sickness, pain, and injustice continue, triggering the restless cycle all over again.
For this crisis, there is only one antidote. One solution. One Savior. His name is Jesus Christ.
I’ve often heard the phrase, “There’s a God-shaped hole in all of us.” Albeit catchy, this statement falls well short of encompassing the current state of humanity. Jesus Christ is not an absent piece of the puzzle, that if introduced, would then make the whole picture look a little bit better.
The fact is - there is no picture at all without Jesus.
He’s the beginning and end of all things.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8).
He’s the reason for our existence and the reason for our salvation.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made (John 1:3).
Somehow, we’ve gotten it backward all these years. We try to fit Jesus into what we already have. We want the rest of it to stay the same, making Jesus just another aspect of our already cluttered existence.
This is not who Jesus is, and it’s not how we were created to behave.
When Jesus is present, He completely transforms and renews. He’s not an added benefit or additional component. Rather, when you have Jesus, you no longer need anything else in life. All the other elements seem to fade away in comparison with Christ and what He offers us.
Look at his conversation with the woman at the well in John 4:13-14. After discussing the water in the well, Jesus tells her,
“Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
The woman in this story is, unfortunately, an extremely accurate portrayal of the world right now. We frequent that well, but instead of water, we keep going back for more drugs, more laws, more social media attention, or whatever else we think will quench that thirst inside of us. And we get our fill, but after a while, the thirst returns, and likewise, we’re forced to return to the well that never fulfills and never sustains.
Of course, this does not mean there are no struggles in the world, even for followers of Christ.
Our culture is ablaze with sin and rebellion. From homosexuality to abortion, dishonesty to corruption. The division in our world, specifically in our country, grows daily with each new conflict. With each new outrage, another line is drawn in the sand, forcing everyone to pick sides in yet another confrontation.
For all of these reasons, the world desperately needs the gospel right now. The life of following Jesus is for everyone, and all are welcome. No matter what you’ve done or who you are, there is room at the table.
His grace is sufficient to sustain you, more than whatever you’ve been drawing from that well all these years.
Jesus was killed for our mistakes, and that death is sufficient to save us, no matter how dark a world we live in.
We can keep looking in other places all we want, but we’ll still be thirsty again by the end of the day. Through all the chaos, our response as believers must be to point others to the only worthy prize: The living water of Jesus Christ.
(Editor's Note: This was originally published on Engage Magazine's website HERE.)
