
So yes as you would expect part three is looking at Jesus saying “… I am the Life”
I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full
John 10:10
I think this is another one that means different things to different people. What I see as having life to the full is not the same as others.
I’ve written a couple of pieces around thoughts of what doing life meant to me back in 2015 – here and here Just glancing back at them I would say my thoughts haven’t changed much, though I have because of the QEC work I’ve done, the clearing out of traumas rather than just regular counseling.
The Alpha booklet says Jesus came to deal with things that spoil our lives and deal with our guilt, and I would add that he also came so that we would know that The Creator of the Universe loves us unconditionally, which I think we can often only fully see when we have cleared out the detritus from our childhood.
So when I am feeling lonely I am not living the fullness of life. When I get angry about something someone said that hurts me then I am not living the fullness of life. When I am trying to people please because I want to be loved then I am not living the fullness of life. When I am doing things because I ought to or should do, whether that is a job, a hobby, a way of dressing, an acceptance of something, then I am not living the fullness of life.
I do think we can still be angry about somethings but then we need to check in with God to see if there is anything they want us to change, either with ourselves, with the other person, with the situation. I think we can still work and do hobbies and dress in a certain way so long as we are doing it because we get a feeling of contentment from doing it but not because we ought to. Even with loneliness we can still stop and ask God what it is that this feeling is saying to us.
Actually any feelings we get – whether those we label as positive or those we label as negative feeling – I think, we need to take them to God and ask what these are showing us about ourselves.
And as I wrote this last paragraph I realised that alwasys taking what we feel, think, say, back to the God who loves us Unconditionally then we start to walk in the truth.
Revelation – it is not Jesus is three different things – Way, Truth and Life – but that Jesus is all three of these rolled in together. Jesus is the WayTruthLife and if I can walk in going back to God to find out the Truth of my thoughts and actions then I can be fully alive and can then be walking in the way of God.
When I do this I realise that I am a writer and very often I think through my pen or the tips of my typing fingers, that truths become revealed as I write rather than beforehand. So for me that is my Way,Truth,Life. What is yours?