Just the other day my colleagues and I were discussing the unfortunate death of a toddler who had chocked on a toy. All of us are fathers and we could not imagine the devastation of losing one of our own. A comment was said “I wouldn’t want to keep living if I lost my child”. A couple of the boys jumped in straight away and said, “No you would man, you have Jesus”. We are all Christian men, we love our families and we love God, but that conversation got me really thinking, would I be ok if tragedy struck, would I be ok if I hit rock bottom, if I have nothing left, will Jesus be enough for me?
That night while I was showering my almost 2-year-old daughter, I was singing some worship songs with her while shampooing her hair. There is a song that I love called Healer by Hillsong. There is a particular line in the song that goes “You’re more than enough for me, Jesus you’re all I need” I instantly broke out into tears, I sat on the shower floor and sobbed. My daughter must have thought I was a crazy person, all of sudden daddy has gone from happily singing to uncontrollable crying.
The conversation from earlier on in the day with the boys flooded my thoughts and I held my little girl tight, not ever wanting to let her go. I cried for a couple of reasons, one I never want to lose a child and two if all I have was taken from me, will Jesus be enough? In that moment I was not sure I would have wanted to continue on.
This got me thinking about how comfortable my life as a Christian has been. Not once have I ever been in danger because of my faith, not in my adult life have I experienced the death of a close friend or family member, not once have I faced a medical diagnosis that would change the course of my life. Life for me as a Christian has been fairly cruisy, quite easy to love God and remain strong in faith. Sure, there have been some pretty hard times, but some of the things I have mentioned happen to people, good and bad, Christian and non-Christian all the time. So many people have hit rock bottom, for the believer, was Jesus enough for them?
Hope lies in those who have come before
The bible has many accounts of believers suffering, losing everything and yet their faith in God was what got them through the tough times. I think of Abraham and Sara who weren’t able to have children and were well passed child bearing age. Yet God asked him to have faith and promised that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky. The nation of Israel was born.
Joseph was hated by his brothers, sold off into slavery, falsely accused of rape and thrown into an Egyptian prison and forgotten about. Yet because of his faith, God raised him up and he eventually became second in command of Egypt.
Job lost it all, his wealth, health and family. Many of his friends had told him you must have done something wrong to have such tragedy come upon you. But never once did he blame God. God restored Job’s life because of his faith and commitment to Him.
Christians past and present have been brutally persecuted, believers murdered and tortured for their faith, yet the Christian faith continues to grow in the very countries that are trying to wipe them out. Everything I have mentioned are real things, that happen to real people every day. How such faith can come out of immense tragedy can only be explained as miraculous. But then again, we serve a miraculous God.
Why did these individuals hold on? Why did they continue to pursue God even though their lives wear left in tatters? They all had one thing in common, an eternal perspective, hope in a future where pain and suffering will no longer exist, evidence of a God who loved them and cared for them, a God who knows all too well the suffering they have gone through, a God who can relate and empathise with them.
My best friend
Psalm chapter 34, verse 18 says: “The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit”. We have a God who is concerned with our wellbeing, he knows the perils that life holds for mankind, the suffering, the wars, the diseases, the death. In our short lives here, we will all experience some of the worst that life has to offer, but we are able to stand strong and carry on because of what Jesus did for us.
My best friend, my Lord and Saviour went through it all. The emotional stress of the task before him as he knew how he would die, the physical humiliation and torture of his body as he took stripe after stripe for me and you, the fear and the loneliness as he hung on the cross, the sins of the world past, present and future thrust upon him, so much so that God could not look at him and He cried. “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” an eternal connection broken in an instant.
You see Jesus knew, he needed to pay the price so that mankind could have a chance to have an eternal relationship with the Father just like he does. So, the answer to the question: Jesus you’re all I need? Yes, with all my heart, yes.
Jarred is an HPE and Mathematics teacher on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, he is married to Haley and has beautiful daughter named Chelsea. Jarred’s previous articles may be viewed at: https://www.pressserviceinternational.org/jarred-pienaar.html