That You May Have LifeSýnishorn

That You May Have Life

It wasn’t the lack of sleep, breastfeeding challenges, or the endless stream of diapers that made things hardest for me when I first became a mom. It was the silence.

I remember the first day my husband returned to work, and I was all alone in a quiet house: just me, the baby, and my thoughts. I was flooded with feelings of anxiety and despair. Am I doing this whole parenthood thing wrong? Why do I feel so isolated and alone? Where did the old me go, and who am I now?

These days, my toddler (joyfully) fills our house with anything but silence, and I am so thankful for the peace God has grown in me in this season of motherhood. Yet, there are still moments where feelings and thoughts I want to avoid press in on me - feelings of anxiety, fear, or shame - and I find myself doing anything I can to avoid them. I pull up emails while waiting in line; I scroll through Instagram while stopped at a light; I immediately turn on a show when the tasks for the day are done. I wonder if you can relate to this compulsion to be constantly busy, distracting from what might be happening inside you.

The Gospel writer John declares that the purpose of his writing is that we might believe in Jesus and have life (John 20:31), and specifically life abundantly (John 10:10). Those of us who believe in Jesus have decisively passed from spiritual death to life; yet, if we’re honest, many of us would not say we’re walking in abundant life. We profess that there is meaning and satisfaction in God, but our day-to-day is still often laced with disillusionment and emptiness.

Jesus is not content with our diminished experience of his life, but rather, he desires to lead us deeper and deeper into it, infusing purpose, joy, and hope into our lived experiences! One way John explores the nature of this life in Christ is through seven statements Jesus makes about himself throughout the book. These are known as the “I Am” statements.

Central to each statement is Jesus’s claim to be God. “I Am” was the name God pronounced for himself in the Old Testament. God said to Moses in Exodus 3:14, “ “I am who I am.” So, when Jesus says, “I am the bread of life,” or “I am the light of the world,” he calls us to look upon and trust Him as God. Each “I Am” statement reveals a different aspect of his lordship, a unique blessing of life that we receive in him.

In pursuit of this life Jesus offers, we will examine the seven “I Am” statements throughout this study. We’ll explore how Jesus is:

1: The Bread of Life: he satisfies us and gives us rest from our striving.

2: The Light of the World: he opens our eyes to his love so that we might find freedom from our sin.

3. The Gate for his sheep, and 4. The Good Shepherd: he cares for us and leads us down the path of flourishing.

5. The Resurrection and the Life: he gives us an ever-deepening relationship with him, a reality that gives us hope amid suffering

6. The Way, the Truth, and the Life: he comforts us in our fear with the promise of our future in him.

7. The True Vine: he abides in us, and we in him that we might bear spiritual fruit.

Through the Gospel of John, Jesus is calling us to receive his life. He invites us -

Set aside your distractions and face that fear, anxiety, and emptiness you’ve been avoiding. Face it, and then come to me because I’ve come to exchange the things of darkness for the things of light, the things of death for the things of life.

The life that Jesus gives us is nothing less than himself. He states this in John 17:3, saying, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” When we believe in Jesus, not just once for salvation but continually as we trust in him and his promises, life-giving fellowship with him abounds.