Live the Great Life!

Would you like to have the very best life possible?  Of course!  Every one of us would love to have a great life, full of rich pleasures, satisfying relationships, simple delights, meaningful purpose, and a secure future.  We want our lives to matter, and we want to enjoy life as much as possible.  In fact, everyone who comes to me for counseling and guidance is coming to me because they want a better life for themselves – better relationships, better patterns of thought and behavior, better mental health, etc.  Through my professional training and years of experience, I have learned many insights and tools into improving these various areas of life.  It is my joy to share these with my clients, and watch their lives and relationships become healthier and more satisfying along the way.  And there is one insight that stands about all the others, when it comes to helping people live the great life.

My message to you this week is a simple one: Jesus came to give us the great life!  If you are not a “churchgoer,” I hope you won’t stop reading or tune me out at this point.  I am not trying to preach to you that going to church and following the right religious rules will fix all your problems and make your life great.  Far from it!  Church is not the answer to our problems.  In my experience, church membership can sometimes be just one more area of life that presents problems and challenges to grow through and overcome.  (Active, committed participation and service in a healthy church family is certainly something I encourage, because I find the benefits far outweigh the challenges.)  However, living the great life is not about church, or rules, or the religious doctrine of a particular church affiliation – it’s about Jesus.  Consider the following words of Jesus recorded in the gospel written by his best friend on earth, John:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him…Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life…If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him…I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty…I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never again walk in darkness, but will have the light of life…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full…I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.  From now on, you do know him and have seen him…You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.  These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life…The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”

By the way, I know that those of you who are considering seeing me for counseling are NOT looking for someone to push his religious beliefs or agenda on you.  Don’t worry.  I won’t.  However, in my life I have found that the greatest possible way to live – with the greatest relationships, satisfaction, mental health, and rewards – comes from a life walking with Jesus, the Son of God who came down from heaven to live in a body like ours so he could show us how to make the most of this life and bring us home to live with him when the time is right.  I wouldn’t be giving you my best if I didn’t offer that hope to you.  Will I preach to you in my counseling office?  No.  You have my word on that.  Will I do my very best to be a living example to you of the great life?  You can count on it.  I’m not perfect, and I am very aware of that.  But I don’t have to be.  Jesus took care of that for me.  I just have to keep walking with Him and letting His presence in my life change me to be more like Him.  I hope that will make a difference in your life as you come to me for guidance along the way.

May you and your family discover the great life.  Let me know if I can help in any way.

With Hope, Roger