I once saw a simple bumper sticker that proclaimed to the reader:
Try Jesus
The immediate questions that come to my mind when I think of this statement is: “Why? Why should someone ‘try Jesus’? Try what? Try following Him and see if they like it? Try serving Him and see if He can make them happy?”
If you are under the notion that you must “find yourself” or “find who you are”, or “find happiness”, you won’t find happiness in “trying Jesus” any more than in the plethera of other things you could try.
You can’t and won’t find happiness by looking for it. Happiness is a volatile feeling. Not to be trusted in in the least. You must stop thinking about how unhappy you are. You must forget yourself.
It is only in realizing that you were made for someone else, to bring glory to someone else that you may, in the end, find happiness. However, you should never look for happiness in Christ. In other words, this must not be your main motivation in choosing to follow Him. Following Christ isn’t for wimps. It’s hard. But, if you are determined to do it, you must do it. You must choose to follow Him. You must choose Him over anything else, even if it means being unhappy right now. You must choose to stick it through.You may find happiness while you are following Christ. And maybe you won’t. But that’s not the point.
You must realize that “you are not your own.”
You were made for someone else and someplace else.
This may sound like a drab existence, always serving Another person. It is difficult, I won’t deny it. But I’m going to stick it through.
He never promised happiness.
But He did promise something else: an eternity of joy and praise in His presence. I know that, in the end, it doesn’t really matter whether my life here is happy and carefree. It doesn’t really matter. I have a whole eternity of joy to look forward to. So that is why I’m willing to sacrifice happiness during the breath of a lifetime that I’m here. No tears!
I know what is coming, and I know it will all be worth it in the end.
The best is yet to come.
