While I hear 20-somethings asking, “What if my life doesn’t go anywhere?” I hear my peers sighing, “My life isn’t going where I thought it would go.” Somewhere along the line, we feel, things have gone off track.
In just the past month, I have heard several Christians articulate surprise at the turns their lives have taken: “I never thought adultery would happen to me,” “I never could have imagined myself as a widow,” “I don’t want to be the mother of a deceased daughter.” Each deviation from our expectations of “normalcy” can leave us confused and recalibrating. How do we cope with the suspense of life in such an unpredictable world? How do we deal with the fear that our lives will be disappointing””to us or to God?
The good news from the Scriptures is this: No follower of Jesus is an isolated entity, living out a solitary, potentially tragic plot line. The life story of a disciple is inextricably linked with the life story of Jesus. Each of us is connected to Jesus as a branch is connected to the vine, a body part is connected to the head, or a wife is connected to her husband (John 15; Eph. 4:15-16; Eph. 5:31-32). In fact, the truth gets even more shocking: As the Father is in Jesus, and he is in the Father, so are we “in” Christ, and he in us (John 17:20-26). In other words, in the same way that the Father and the Son are connected to one another, so we are connected with the Son by the work of his Spirit. We are “joined to the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17, ESV).
“The possibility is staggering: that I, a creature, might have my life linked—actually, organically, eternally linked—to the Son of God himself.”
Staggering indeed–this is a very nourishing piece.