I recently had an article published in the Newfrontiers magazine. I thought I’d share it here. It’s much longer than most blog posts so I’ve broken it up into four sections: (parts 1 & 2)

The promise of life

What does it mean to be truly alive? If you spend any time watching TV you may well conclude that being truly alive involves being on holiday. This is slightly unfortunate because that means most people in the UK only have four or five weeks a year when they can be truly alive.

We seem to live for the annual vacation but within a day or so of returning from vacation we rapidly discover that what we really need is another one. There must surely be a problem if we merely exist for 48 weeks of the year and only spring into life when we go on holiday! I have to wonder if when Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10) this is really what He had in mind?

It’s not just in travel that we see this mix of longing and discontent because every industry uses the same techniques from TVs to cars, mobile phones to beauty products the pattern is repeated; create dissatisfaction, add in some longing and present the solution – our new product! These companies aren’t simply trying to sell you their products but a certain kind of life, a cool, happy, fulfilled life. Fulfilled at least until the next thing comes along.

The end result however is not fulfilment but discontentment (otherwise we wouldn’t want anything new right?) and that is the opposite to the life of a follower of Christ. In Philippians 4:12, Paul talks of having discovered the secret of both plenty and abundance as well as hunger and need, the secret to living life to the full, the key to contentment. What is this secret? In Luke 18 Jesus reverses the wisdom of the world and says the key to a full life is finding something greater. If you find something worth giving up homes and families for, something worth selling possessions for then you have found something worth living for, that by giving up you gain, by losing your life you will find it. Life in this age and in the age to come eternal, resurrected life. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is that greater thing, the rule and reign of God changing this world. This is the pearl of great price that is worth giving up everything for.