July 7, 2010

What Do You Want?


I said in our last issue that “any Christ-follower needs to grasp some very important ideas in regards to Dr. Kathy’s five core needs model: first, your ultimate security, identity, and belonging are in God through faith in Christ’s work on the cross; second, as a result of placing your faith in Jesus, God will show you His purposes for your life and give you whatever competences you need to fulfill those purposes.”


Which begs the question: What about someone who’s not a Christian? Is it possible for her five core needs to be met? Yes…and no.

Even if you had loving parents and a great school experience and now find yourself in a perfect marriage, I daresay you can easily identify people who’ve betrayed you along the way, thus challenging your ability to trust and shaking your security.

Even if you’ve had the same career goal since you were five and have reached the pinnacle of success in your field, I’m sure you’ve struggled at times with various aspects of your identity, experiencing inevitable bumps along life’s road that caused you to ask, “Who am I…really?”
Even if you’ve been the favored child, the center of attention with the “in” crowd, and the life of the party, the reality of sin within each of us means you’ve also been neglected, left out, and alone many times, causing you to wonder if you really belong.

Even if you’ve usually understood what you should do with each “season” of life and have a general sense of direction for the future, you surely wrestle with some aspects of purpose – asking, “Why am I alive?” – as life circumstances ebb and flow.

Even if you’re very good at everything you attempt, you’re not perfect at anything. And you haven’t tried everything you could…perhaps because you’re afraid to fail in areas where you know you’re weak. You’re not perfectly competent and never will be.

Thus, it’s obvious that one’s core needs can never be totally met through human relationships. We need supernatural intervention to make it happen, and Jesus told us He is “the way and the truth and the life,” and that “no one comes to the Father except through [Him]” (John 14:6). So someone who wants complete fulfillment and wholeness – in his five core needs and everything else – must get it through God, and Scripture says the one and only way to God is through Jesus.

Of course, God gives each person the freedom to follow a different path. But saying no to Jesus also means saying no to ultimate, perfect personal peace – settling instead for a partial picture. God hopes you say yes…but it’s up to you to decide what you want.

*****
Photo Credit: Paolo Margari

CK

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