The Fellowship of Joy

Why Am I Here? "Why died I not from the womb?" - Job 3:11 Job is entitled to a few seconds of self-indulgent pity on his way to deeper faith. At least, he thinks he is. One of his early questions is one that we ask today: Why am I here? Job poses it from the place of pain. When all was going well, the question did not cross his mind - though it is one of life's most important considerations. He actually approaches the matter from the negative. If life is full of hardship and agony, why should a person even be born? The question presupposes that the purpose of life is ease, comfort, and freedom from trouble. Job would learn along the way to ask better questions with a seeking and honest heart. He would learn to be willing to let God answer them His own way and in His own time. But for a season, he had to struggle and wrestle with human emotions and doubts. What does it take in our lives to prompt us to ask the difficult, penetrating, and yet, vital questions that def...

The Rolling Stones, in the 60s, captured a universal emotion in a song, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” Do you need a reminder of it? Jesus addressed the same notion in John 6:35: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst…“ In Exodus 16, there are thousands of Hebrew refugees from Egypt in the desert wanting food. They wanted it and needed it. In II Samuel 11 and 12, we see David, who wanted Bathsheba. His wants had some basis in need, but it was a misplaced desire for satisfaction. Later, David wants and needs grace. His prayer ascends in Psalm 51. In Ephesians 4, Paul reminds us of the satisfaction that comes from being part of a family of faith in Jesus that lives a life of genuine humility, community, and giftedness, exercising those gifts in service to God and one another. Jesus is the Bread of Life without whom we slowly whither into lifeless shells of animated emptiness. He is the food that sustains. He is the...