In Him We Live

I'm a very deep sleeper, so sometimes I have dreams that are incredibly vivid, realistic, and convincing.  I've woken up upset and sure that something sad and terrible was true when it was simply the workings of my sleeping mind, and I have been disappointed when my eyes fluttered open because I had already spent time in my dream getting ready for the day when in reality my feet hadn't even yet hit the floor.  My mind and imagination are so elaborate that I can be convinced that it is reality if I am not careful to distinguish between the two and ground myself in what is true.

Just as my mind can be fooled in sleep to believe that fictional plots and interactions are real life, do many realize that they live in the same sort of haze even when they are awake with eyes wide open?

Now most certainly there are billions of people walking around this earth with hearts pumping and air moving in and out of their lungs.  They are alive, but I must wonder whether they are really living or have fooled themselves into thinking they are.  It seems there is a hint of the same concern as they are continually searching for meaning and greater purpose.  It's as if they have this sense of emptiness and purposelessness for which a solution must be found.  Carpe diem.  YOLO.  Dance as if no one's watching.  Live each day as if it's your last.  And so they seize the day, they act with the knowledge that you only live once, they dance frantically, and they live like there is no tomorrow.  And yet it's still empty.  They know they are alive and yet somehow they aren't fully living.  

I recently came upon a beautiful truth in Acts 17:28 - In him we live and move and have our being...  Those first four words are powerful when I stop to think about them.     In Him we live.  Scripture tells me that before Christ changed my heart and became Lord of my life, I wasn't truly living.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved -- (Ephesians 2:4-5).  A slave to sin (John 8:34), I was no more living true, abundant life than if I were asleep, dreaming, and calling it true.  Here is where it gets exciting though!  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)  Recognizing that I am broken and nothing better than dead in my sin, I call on Jesus Christ as my Savior because He brings life out of death and makes new what is broken.  Doing what no man could do, He came down from His rightful place in heaven to live a sinless life, to offer Himself up as a blameless sacrifice taking upon Himself the wrath and punishment that my own sins deserved, and to conquer death and rise again.....all because He loves you and me and wants us to truly live in union with Him just as from the beginning we were intended to be.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.  (John 10:10)  I love it!  He gives us life, and He gives it abundantly!  We can stop searching for empty solutions and living by meaningless cliches.  Wake up and open your eyes to the Way, the Truth, and the Life!  Fill your lungs, your heart, and every ounce of your being with joy and fullness in Jesus.  In HIM we LIVE!