The Good Life

When Jesus came to this world He showed mankind something that it had not seen for thousands of years. He came and showed the world that there was something about Him that set Him apart from others. You could -see it in the way acted. You could -hear it when he spoke, sense -it’s presence when interacting with Him. There was something about Jesus and everyone around Him knew it --everyone could tell that He had something others didn’t.

John, one of Jesus followers and closest friend began one of his letters talking about this something in Jesus. (1 John 1:1)

So what is --it? What is this thing that was so noticeable in Christ’s life that even existed at the beginning of time, that people heard, saw and touched?

Was it Jesus Himself? Was it God? Was it love? What was it?

It was life! Life to it’s highest potential. It was what I like to call the Good Life.

In the very next verse of that same letter John says:

that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father.

The word eternal here isn’t just an adjective of time meaning endless life or everlasting life. But rather, it’s meaning has to do with eternal quality, grand quality, superior quality, the best quality. Calling this life eternal means that it is never ceasing in it’s goodness, filled to the brim in its fullness and never ending in its wholeness. It is –eternal.

All throughout His life you can see Jesus telling people about the Good Life. He even said that His reason for coming to this Earth was to give us this Good Life of fullness. (John 10:15) The promise of the Good Life is for us right here and right now. Unfortunately a lot of believers today seem to have forgotten this (or maybe they never realized it at all).

It seems as though many Christians believe that being a follower of Jesus is all about trying to be good here on earth for awhile while they wait to go to heaven --and once they're there things will be good. Now it's true that Christ's followers will be going to heaven and that things will be good there. But, Jesus has also blessed our lives for right here and right now in this world. Isn't that what the Good News is about? When we fully take a hold of the Good Life we in turn are activity involved in bringing heaven here to the world around us. It seems that many Christians don't really believe that the Good News is really all that good. Or maybe they don't understand the good part about it.

Take a visit to some churches and listen to them sings songs like Ring Out the Message and you'll know what I'm talking about. It's first words are "There's a message true and glad for the sinful and the sad ring it out. . ." In many cases you will find a room of pretty sad and depressed looking facess inging a song about a message of goodness that they believe they should take to the world. --Yeah! Ironic, I know! --Perhaps the people in such an auditorium need to hear the Good News themselves! Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe that all churches are this way but some certainly are.

I believe that when a person truly believes that the Good News (the gospel) is indeed good news that you can tell. Let's take the woman at the well in the book of John for example. She was so excited to hear about the promise of the Good Life that she left behind her water jar and went into the streets of town telling everyone that they've got to come and see this man Jesus. --She seemed to believe that Good News actually was good news!

I believe that the Good News of Christ is amazing! It is because of this that I try to live an intentional life. I believe it's important to strive to live in such a way that others can see the manifest of the Good Life in my own life just as it was with Christ's. I try and live this way so that others can hear the Good Life when I talk, feel it’s presence when we interact and see it in what I do so that they too might have the Good Life and thus be added to our community of love and faith --the Kingdom of God. It is the joyous thing to bring others into our Kingdom of love as we all share in the Good Life of Christ.

May we all take hold of the Good Life in such a way that it may be seen, heard and felt by those around us in our day-to-day lives just as it was in Christ's.