Through nearly all of my college years I drove a motorcycle for transportation. Riding a motorcycle is a very different experience than driving a car. Motorcycles have only two points of contact on the road instead of four. Motorcyclists are more exposed to their surroundings like hazards, noise, road conditions, fog, rain, and temperature. They navigate curves by shifting their weight instead of turning a steering wheel. The highway I travelled to school ran through a shallow valley which, like a venturi or funnel, concentrated the wind blowing inland from the open coast. Some days the wind blew so strongly across the highway that I had to actually lean into the wind even when driving straight in order to keep it from pushing me off the road. I’m sure it looked strange to drivers shielded from the wind in the cockpit of their cars to see me going straight although my bike was at a 60° angle to the road. But leaning in was necessary to progress without crashing. Similarly on life’s journey you travel a valley between two spiritual realities: the world’s way and God’s way. You must lean in to God by faith in order to survive and thrive.
A stark contrast divides God’s way and the way of this world. Jesus, God the Son who became a man to save you and all people, taught this truth, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7). God is love; the world is riddled with hate. God is peace; the world worries. God provides rest; the world strives. God is good; the world rebels. God is truth; the world deceives. God gives; the world takes. God is right and complete; the world is broken. God’s way is eternal, purposeful, meaningful, and hopeful. The world’s way is temporary and ends in death.
Your experience in life’s valley between these two realities varies based on your response to God. Some people never even recognize that there are two realities. Their self-centered myopic view blinds and separates them from true life with God. Other people admit that God exists, but stubbornly reject his way in favor of living for themselves. Neither of these are what you are designed for. God created you and loves you. He wants you to be with him, to be like him, and to do what he does. Just like a mother’s womb is not the permanent home for a baby, this world is not the reality you were made for. God has a greater life for you now and forever. Jesus is the one who makes it possible for God’s reality to be your reality. He came to show you who God is. He died and rose again to enable you to conquer sin and its deathly grip, and joyfully live with God.
Here is a poem I wrote several years ago which summarizes how Jesus has uniquely made God’s awesome reality available to you:
Jesus is God, yet he became a man.
He was born of a woman so people can be born of God.
He is holy, yet he dwelt among us.
He is the Righteous One, yet he became our sin.–
He was the Chosen One, yet people have not understood him.
He loves us, yet people hate him.
He is life, yet people choose death.–
He counts us worthy when apart from him we are worthless.
He is King, yet he came to serve.
He is Lord, yet he chose to submit.–
He humbled himself so we can be lifted up.
He became a servant so we can become royal heirs.
He denied himself so we can freely receive all things.
He suffered rejection so we can become his friends.–
He became the victim so we can be victors.
He was crushed so we can be crowned.
He was pierced so we can be healed.
He was broken so we can be restored.
He was poured out so we can be filled.
He was forsaken so we can be reconciled.
He was ransomed so we can be free.–
He gave himself so he could bless us in every way.
He suffered God’s wrath so we can experience God’s forgiveness.
He was condemned so we can be pardoned.
He was judged so we can be justified.
He became the scapegoat so we can be sanctified.
He was despised so we can be glorified.–
He laid down his life so we can live.
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He died and arose to conquer death and sin.
He is seated with the Father, making his enemies his footstool.
He is the creator, sustainer, perfecter, purpose, and head of all things.–
He is the Door so we can enter his kingdom.
He is the Savior so we can be redeemed.
He is the Truth so we can believe and obey.
He is the Way so we can have purpose and hope.–
He is the Good Shepherd so we can follow.
He is the Vine so we can abide, grow, and bear fruit.
He is the Bread so we can be satisfied.
He is the Resurrection so we can be made new and whole.
He is Love so we can love and be loved.
He is Life so we can really live.–
He is eternal.
He will return soon for those who believe, to joyfully reign with him forever.
You experience God’s reality by trusting and obeying Jesus. That’s what faith is. By placing confident assurance in Jesus to save you, you enter into God kingly rule and his character and mission become real and life-changing for you (Hebrews 11:1). Yet in the process, the world you live in does not go away. There is still that reality with its pressures, pain, pitfalls, and persecutions. But now that you are awakened and alive to a new reality—God’s reality, things are different. Your past is forgiven and redeemed. Your present is being transformed by following Jesus. Your future is blessed beyond measure. You are adopted into God’s family of supportive, loving, believers. You receive his Holy Spirit to comfort, counsel, train, and empower you. The apostle Paul described the change that leaning into Jesus by faith brings, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:14-17).
Lean in to Jesus by faith and you will truly live. Jesus taught, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” (Luke 9:24-25). Pursuing the world’s way is actually a warped and false reality: misguided, unfulfilling, and dangerous. Not only does it end in your death, but it prevents you and those you could be helping from fully experiencing God’s precious love, abundant provision, divine wisdom, and almighty power today. The apostle John encouraged people to make the right choice each day, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17). Discover real, abundant life by trusting and obeying Jesus and helping others do the same.