Jesus Is The Answer?

When I was a little kid, growing up in the church, I was taught, “Jesus is the answer.” The basic idea was that, in an ultimate sense, Jesus is the answer to everything.

Well, I believed that. What do you expect? I was a little kid! That’s what the big people taught me and that’s what I believed.

Then, as I got a little bit older. I got frustrated with that concept and it seemed simplistic to me. I believed in Jesus and I knew that there was a certain sense in which he was the answer, but I also began to think that wasn’t a sophisticated enough approach to deal with all the realities of life in this complex and difficult world with its significant problems.

To say that Jesus is the answer seemed a little bit weak and insufficient to me, in fact, it even seemed like the response “Jesus is the answer” was used as an excuse or a cop out, sometimes.

Now, I’m older and I’ve lived a bit more life—I’ve dealt with a lot more problems and seen a lot more trouble—and you know what? I’m realizing in a new way, I’m realizing in a little more mature way, that it’s true. It has been true all along. It’s taken me a while to see just how ultimately true it is, but Jesus is the answer. He is. I see that more clearly, now. (I don’t see it perfectly, but I see it a little more clearly.)

I know it sounds too simplistic—like I said, I’ve been down that road—but it’s not. It’s the truth. Jesus is the answer. In fact, what I’m understanding, now, is that there really is no other answer.

Nothing makes sense outside of him—ultimately. Nothing really ever gets fixed outside of him. Life will never truly be lived—the way it was meant to be lived—outside of him. No love is truly possible outside of him. No relationships work, the way they were meant to work, outside of him. This broken world will never, ever, ever, be made right outside of him.

I don’t mean to make light of the scope of your problems or difficulties. I don’t mean to minimize whatever it is you’re dealing with. I don’t write this as an excuse or a cop out for not taking appropriate action, but . . . in the ultimate sense: Jesus is the answer.

Dan Marler
First Church of God
Oak Lawn, IL

http://www.visitusonline.org/