As you read the meme above, are you nodding your head in agreement? It wouldn’t surprise me in the least. We all know that this world is awash in beauty and pain, love and grief, anger and joy.
The question that occurs to me is: why does British actor/writer/narrator/director/atheist Stephen Fry somehow conclude that this world’s enormous contrasts deny the existence of a creator? And does it lead you in the same direction?
My pastor friend Ross Carkner, who I showed the meme to, agrees that “beauty alone is not a testament to God’s existence.” But then he points out something that I believe is equally true: “God exists in the midst of the beauty and the ugliness.”
Here’s the thing: Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God, never promised us a life free of bone cancer or acne or leukemia or bunions or even rap music (sorry; this old guy’s gotta have a moment of fun).
In fact, He told anyone willing to listen that “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows; but cheer up, for I have overcome the world.”
I’m sure you’re asking, just as I did when I first read this quote — from one of the four original-source biographies of Jesus’ physical life on Earth — what ‘overcoming the world’ means.
The website GotQuestions.org notes it’s multifaceted:
- Jesus gives His followers peace to overcome our troubled hearts.
- He gives His followers strength to turn away from the wrong things we’ve done and right things we’ve failed to do.
- Jesus gives His followers ultimate victory over the evil spiritual forces that haunt this world and inspire wars, pandemics, pedophilia and so many other ills that plague humanity
- He gives His followers a share in His victory over death, because after being crucified on false charges, He rose from the dead several days later (Please check out the ‘links to other sites’ tab to read all the evidence supporting Jesus’ resurrection).
All this gives me, and other Jesus followers, tremendous relief and endurance as we deal with life on this planet. In fact, I’ll go so far as to claim this God-fueled relief and endurance gives Jesus followers a source of power that the rest of the world doesn’t have.
If you’re not following Jesus, then do you have any hope to overcome the challenges of life? And if you’re not following Jesus, do you have any hope of life beyond 70+ years of eating, breathing, working and finally expiring?
I have that hope. I’ll go further and tell you I have supreme confidence, that Jesus gives to all His followers, for a good and joyous life beyond this existence — a life that leaves behind all the pain and exhaustion of what we so often experience now.
Do you want in on this blessing? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
Frank's Cottage 