Why You Matterናሙና

We would rather continue in our quest for our identity—looking for clues all around us, little indicators of who we might be and what we might be here for—rather than place all of our hope in the ultimate identity that we have. Christ crucified is more than everything we ask for. He is beyond enough. He is the actual power of God and wisdom of God. He is all in all. And yet we so often say, “That isn’t quite what I am looking for. Give me something a little . . .less.”

I am sure you are thinking that you have never said that. Because, laid all out there bare like that, very few Christians dare to say that Jesus is not enough for them. So let’s look at some of the very mundane, more familiar ways that we do this. What are some of the most common wants we have when we struggle through our lives?

We might say we are just really, really needing a break. We need a chance to recuperate and relax. A little rest? We are stressed and want some time off. What is Jesus in this situation? He, the incarnate Son of God, is our everlasting rest. He is given to us. An everlasting rest and peace has already been given to us, and we are still looking for short-term, unsatisfying rest. Why? Because we are asking for less. We are turning aside from this monumental gift to say that it isn’t quite the thing we meant. Worse, we might be thinking of Jesus as another item on our to-do list. Another thing that makes us feel weary.

This is the reality: Christ is more than you ever wanted. He answers the need you are feeling around in the dark to fill, and He answers it in a way that will deal with it forever. In fact, He answers whatever need you have in such a way that you are transformed forever.

What about if we are looking for a little recognition? We might be trying to find ways in which our work matters. We might be resenting the backstage role we have at the office, the less-than-famous artist that we have somehow become. Maybe you are at home with your children, wishing any grownups cared about that.

Or maybe you are unmarried and wishing you had anyone at all who wanted to know what you were doing all day. We look for something little to cheer us up. Maybe, if only someone brought us a coffee and said they knew how hard we were working and that it mattered, we would feel better. We think we would be satisfied if there was just a sign that anyone cared. Maybe if anyone was thoughtful enough to notice that we are tired because we have been working so hard? Maybe someone could tell us that this is important and hard work we are doing. Maybe we would feel better if anyone knew what a long day we had. We are looking to be known and to be loved. But is this really a need that Jesus does not fill?

We want a little indicator that our lives matter to someone? Is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God not enough for us? Does that not show us that we are valued in an authoritative way? That we are loved? Has He not told us that He knows every hair on our heads? That He knows us and understands us to such an extent that absolutely nothing in our lives is outside of His knowledge?

Once again, this is more than what we were looking for. We are urged to cast all of our cares on Him for He cares for us. And yet we look around and wonder why there is no one willing to help us bear our burdens. We wanted a thoughtfully timed coffee, not cleansing blood and the everlasting arms. We wanted someone to say, “I care about you” on a postit note, not someone to give their life for us.

Do you see how we are in possession of more than what we are looking for? We are wasting our time looking around for support and encouragement when we have Christ. We want to drink hesitantly from a sippy cup of comfort while God offers us the opportunity to stand under a Niagara Falls of glory.

We have eternal forgiveness, and we seek cheap validation. We have an omnipotent, omnipresent, and eternal God and we just wish someone knew what we were going through. We want to matter, but we are part of the very body of Christ. When we begin to worship our ideas of support and love and encouragement and start orienting ourselves around those, we become the most shallow and short-term people.

But when we look to Christ, our shallow problems are completely overshadowed by the size of our answers. Christ is all in all. In Him, there is no room for neediness. It is as though we are a child at the dinner table and God has put a table loaded with food in front of us. But instead of eating it we are pining away—praying even! “I am so hungry, Lord—please just give me some little thing—a crust of bread would be enough. I am starving, Lord—send someone to feed me!” What kind of nonsense is this? We already have more than the things we are asking for. We have the bread of life. We have all of the answers already because we have Christ. We have Him crucified and we have him at the right hand of God the Father, reigning. What more could we possibly be asking for?!

Think of some longing that you have. Something that sounds perfectly normal to long for or to wish for. Now look at it honestly. Do you seek after riches? You, who are a child of the King? Do you look for hope? You, who have been saved from death to life? Do you long to be attractive? You, who have been chosen individually by God to live in Him and for Him?

Do you want recognition? You, whose hairs are numbered by the Living God? Do you want purpose? You, whose God has promised that every single thing in your life will work together for your good? You, whose Father has sent you out to accomplish His heavenly work here on earth?

The Jews looked for a sign of power and rejected the actual power of God. The Greeks sought for wisdom and rejected the incarnate wisdom of God as foolishness. And we, in the same way, seek after identity when what we have been given in Christ is the sort of identity, purpose, clarity, and calling that swallows up every other need.

The greatest thing that we can do to better understand ourselves is to lay all of our restlessness at His feet. We need to open our hands that are full of little requests, little needs, and drop them all so that we might, with both hands and whole hearts embrace He who is so much more. Look to Christ. He is not just enough, He is more. He is everlasting joy, everlasting forgiveness, everlasting love. In this life we will never be able to fully grasp what He is offering us. But we can begin. We can lay hold of him. We can let go of our cheap substitutes and our petty needs and embrace Christ crucified. To some it may be a stumbling block or foolishness. But to those who are in Him, it is the very power of God, and the very wisdom of God, and the very essence of your life.