And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. John 17:3
We’re all looking for something. We all seek satisfaction, happiness, meaning, and life somewhere. Some of us have found some fulfillment in career, status, or family. Others of us have turned to darker places, seeking comfort in drugs and alcohol. Wherever we look, or whatever we try, we’re all seeking to satisfy this inherent need to feel complete and content. Despite our efforts, many of us have come up empty. We search and we seek, yet something is missing. Why am I here? What’s my purpose? Why can’t I find meaning and joy?
I didn’t set out to become addicted to drugs. I’m simply a sensation seeker and drugs provided a shortcut to feeling really, really good – but the good times quickly gave way to destructive consequences. My problem wasn’t that I was looking for life and joy. My problem was that I was looking in the wrong place.
Throughout Jesus ministry, he repeatedly claimed that to find eternal life, we must follow him. In today’s passage, Jesus went on to define what that eternal life actually looks like. This authentic life, that we’re all seeking, is found only in a profoundly real, personal relationship with God, the father, and can only be reached through faith in the son, Jesus Christ. We’re completely satisfied, only in knowing God, because he created us to be this way.
In my addiction, I wanted to know life and fulfillment, but as long as I was chasing it in the pill, I was destined for misery, because I was looking in the wrong place. Finding our ultimate meaning in anything but God will lead to a similar feeling of futility. This doesn’t mean we cannot enjoy family and career. It just means that those things cannot provide authentic, eternal life because those things are not God.
The challenge for me now, is to continue to seek life every day in my relationship with the father. Daily, I must read, pray, meditate, and choose to follow him. It’s easy, in recovery, to become complacent. I’ve got faith. I’m sober. I’m good now. Daily though, if I want to know joy and peace, I must continually abandon those lies which distract me from my relationship with God, the only source of eternal life.