What Does Jesus Have to Do With My Life?

Jesus can remain comfortably distant when He is only someone we study.

We can learn about His teachings, consider the historical questions surrounding His life, and even admire the way He treated people. All of that can be interesting without becoming particularly personal.

But Jesus did not simply give people ideas to consider.

He repeatedly invited people to follow Him.

That raises a different question: What might Jesus have to do with the life I am actually living?

Jesus Begins With Us Where We Are

The people who encountered Jesus in the Gospels came from very different places.

Some were religious. Some were skeptical. Some had made a mess of their lives. Some were respected, while others were avoided by respectable people. Some came looking for answers. Others seemed to encounter Jesus almost unexpectedly.

Jesus did not require people to get their lives together before coming near Him.

He met people where they were.

But He also loved them enough not to leave them unchanged.

Jesus Addresses More Than Our Behavior

It is easy to imagine Christianity as an attempt to become a better person.

Certainly, following Jesus affects the way a person lives. Jesus taught about forgiveness, honesty, generosity, sexuality, money, enemies, relationships, justice, and the way we treat other people.

But His invitation goes deeper than behavior.

Jesus continually addressed what was happening inside people: their desires, fears, pride, shame, loyalties, loves, and the things in which they placed their trust.

Christianity says our deepest problem is not simply that we sometimes make poor choices. We have become separated from the source of the life we were made to receive.

What If Life Is Received?

Many of us spend our lives trying to construct something that will finally make us secure, significant, satisfied, or whole.

We achieve. We acquire. We improve. We try to prove ourselves. Sometimes those efforts produce genuinely good things.

But Jesus offers a different starting point.

He speaks about life as something God gives.

Jesus said, “I came that they may have life.”

That changes the direction of the question.

Instead of asking only, How can I build the life I need?, we can begin asking, What if the deepest life I am looking for is something I first have to receive?

Following Jesus Is About Relationship

Jesus did not invite people merely to agree with His teachings. He invited them into relationship.

Following Him means learning to trust Him, listening to what He teaches, allowing Him to reshape the way we see ourselves and others, and learning to live under the loving reign of God.

That does not happen all at once.

The first disciples misunderstood Jesus repeatedly. They asked questions, made mistakes, became afraid, argued with one another, and sometimes failed spectacularly.

Yet Jesus continued forming them as they followed.

That means following Jesus is not reserved for people who have already figured everything out.

The Question Is No Longer Only About Jesus

At some point, exploring Jesus becomes more than deciding what we think about Him historically.

If Jesus really is who Christianity claims He is, then His invitation reaches into our own lives.

What am I trusting to give me life? What am I building my identity around? What am I afraid to surrender? What might change if I actually began following Jesus?

You do not need to rush those questions.

But they are worth allowing to become personal.