Why Are You Alive?

Often we feel the urge to do something noble - something really unselfish - something for someone else. We wonder where such a feeling comes from. Although we don't think of ourselves as mean, unpleasant people, yet we know we're often moved by concern about ourselves. So we feel a little elated even humble when we have this sense that we ought to "just go out and do good - whatever it costs us"!

Why Do We Want to Be Good at Times?

The reason is that our Maker has given us a real choice. He made us in His Son" i.e. in Jesus (who existed long before the world was made) BUT He has allowed us to live here the life that we would live if we were "on our own". So our present life shows us what it's like to live as if we were not part of God. However, from time to time, Jesus exerts His own kind heart within so that we can clearly see the difference.

Nevertheless, most of the time we live in unreality - as if we're "on our own". We assume we somehow happened here on earth and ought to do just what we want. That's why we feel so empty inside so destitute of direction and purpose in our lives. It's pleasant to be free to do whatever you want, but it's also frightening in such a huge universe. And in our most thoughtful moments we realize that our complex little lives must be more than just blips in infinity: someone somewhere must know that we're here!

That's partly why God's Son in us sends up to our consciousness at times the good desires He Himself feels. He wants you to know that you're really part of someone bigger than yourself. In fact, you were made in him -- as part of him. He became the first human-being before anything was created (Colossians 1:15) and you were made part of Him before you were born here on earth (Ephesians 2:10). This is why we experience from time to time a kind of freedom from our normal preoccupation with our own security, significance and happiness -- a feeling that wants to do something generous or unselfish for someone else.

These moments are really -- signals from our origins!

You are Inside Someone -- and Someone is Inside You

Actually there is only one human being Christ, the Son of our God; and we are all part of Him really, we're his body. We were made by Him -- begotten in Him -- and are sustained at this very moment by His life and energy -- and love (Colossians 1:17). He gives us the strength to reject His wishes, if we want! Why? So that we can see for ourselves -- as often as we need to that living as if we're on our own is empty and pointless -- and UNREAL.

But doesn't this cause Him strain? Certainly -- it causes continual strain because we exert our wills inside Him. Everything we do forces Him to experience what we experience. If we abuse our own bodies, we force Him to feel the dissipation and emptiness. If we walk over other people or destroy another person with our words, we make Him part of the destroying in us and the destruction in them. So, constantly our God in His son is paying a stupendous price for keeping us alive with his own breath and energy. Not a moment passes but He suffers the strain of our independent striving for our own satisfaction -- inside Him. Thus He faces constantly the cost of bringing into existence beings who have free wills yet retain His life within them. Without this direct connection with Him inside us, we cannot even exist.

But the other side of reality is that in you there lives Christ, the Son of our God. He has things to do here on earth and words to speak which He has planned to do and speak through you. That's why He created you inside Himself. That's why you are here on earth. You are not just a little speck of dust in the sea of humanity -- not a statistic or the result of a mindless evolutionary process. You are a unique part of Jesus Himself "created for good works which God has prepared for you to walk in". That's all you have to do -- be willing to walk in the events and circumstances, the achievements or the sufferings by which Christ intends to complete his creation through your life.

That's reality! What are you going to do?