What Is the One Thing That You Already Have That Offers You a Life of Deep Joy and Significance?

It happens every time I look.  And every time, it stuns me.    Everyone on Facebook is having a better time than I am.   Their families are doing better.  They’re doing cooler things.  They’re eating tastier food.  They’re going to prettier places.   They even seem to be wearing nicer clothes.  It’s depressing.  

And, that’s the problem.  The problem began before the phones.  But they’ve made it worse.  In fact, your phone could be killing you.   It has nothing to do with radiation zapping your brains.  That’s not what’s getting you.   

No, it’s what you look at on these phones.  And you look at them, according to research, a lot.  More than 3 out of 4 of you, for example, are looking at them when you’re eating or socializing.  And what are you looking at?   You’re probably looking at each other.  You’re looking at what people post on Facebook or Pinterest or Twitter or Instagram or whatever.   Even if you don’t do that, you’re still getting the same message from this culture.   You could be better.   Your life could be better.   You should be better, happier, more productive.  Everybody else is.   And if you don’t do this, you are going to get left behind.  

And these messages are killing people.   Do you know who is most likely to kill you with a gun?  You are.   Last year, twice as many people used a firearm to kill themselves rather than anyone else.   And people are doing it in new ways with painkillers, what they call the Opioid epidemic. 

Now for most, it’s not that bad.  But it’s not good.  1 in 6 Americans, 1 in 6, take some sort of drug just to cope mentally and emotionally.   And that’s just the legal drugs. Even if you may not be using a drug, but do you sense the reason why?  Are you feeling the anxiety, the stress, the sadness even?   Does it seem that the world is going faster, but you’re having a harder time keeping up?   You don’t even have to have a setback or failure in life to feel bad about how it’s going.   No, nowadays, regular life can make you feel that way. 

Our culture has told us what matters is what happens outside of us; your status with others, the stuff you own compared to the stuff others own, how happy your pictures appear or how interesting your lives look on the social media feed of your choice.   But in this poem, the poem of a man who faced deep defeat, God shows the way.  God shows the way towards true fulfillment, towards a deep joy, one that doesn’t come from a Facebook feed or from a bonus at work or a new toy at home.   No, this joy comes from a deep knowing within, one that nothing can shake.  Here God shows the way.  Let’s hear what God has to say.

Jonah 2:1-10

How do you find joy in a world driven by so much that draws away joy; obsessive focus on status and stuff; a pace that gets more hectic by the day; demands that you get better, faster, more productive just to keep your head above water?   In this story God gives a different way, one that frees you from the bondage of this driven-ness, that opens you to a path into deeper joy, into greater purpose.   What is that way?  God says.  It is realizing that what ultimately matters, what you ultimately need, you already have and it’s free, even though it came at infinite cost. 

But before we get to what you already have, let’s take a moment to see what prevents you from seeing it.   And to do that, let’s catch up on what inspired the prayer that we just heard. 

For over 40 years the Assyrian empire had extorted from Israel crushing payments just to stave off destruction by the Assyrian armies    His whole life Jonah as a prophet to the Israelite king had witnessed this exploitation and its cost; the suffering, the humiliation.  Yet, God tells him to do something shocking, offensive even.  God tells Jonah to go to the capital of this evil empire, Nineveh and warn them judgment is coming so they can have one last chance to save themselves. 

And what does Jonah do?  Jonah says no.   He doesn’t just say no.  He gets on a ship to take him as far away from Nineveh as he can get.   And if you know the story, you know what happens next.   A terrible storm swamps the boat Jonah is in.   And Jonah realizes he’s the cause of the storm.  His refusal to go to Nineveh has put all the folks on that boat in danger.   So, he asks the sailors to throw him into the sea, to appease this angry God.   But when Jonah goes in the water, God doesn’t kill him.   God saves him.  A fish swallows him alive, but in that place, Jonah, at least at first, wishes he was dead. 

And in Jonah’s despair, you get the clue that will lead you to what you already have, to what God has already given you.   Before you can receive what you already have, you have to realize that what you do have is killing you. 

What makes you feel good when you look at Facebook?  What bugs you or bums you out?   You feel good when you post something great about yourself, some awesome trip you’ve taken, some funny moment.   And yes, you are sharing the joy, but are you also thinking, wow, this is going to look so good?  Are you imagining folks looking at it, and thinking, wow, what a great life he’s living, what cool things she is doing?   And what bums you out? It’s when someone’s status post looks way more awesome than yours.   “Went to Disney World, and guess what, we got cast to be voices in the next Pixar film!  Disney paid for our whole trip. They’re flying us to California next week to be on the Ellen show. So excited.”   They may be so excited, but you, not so much.    Suddenly your life looks pretty lame.  And you wonder, what’s wrong with me?  Why can’t that be me, be my family?    And the same sort of thing happens in life.  Social media only mirrors what human beings have been doing forever, comparison living, measuring your life by others.   

Jonah in saying No to Nineveh was doing the same thing.   Except in his status, he was awesome, and the folks in Nineveh awful, and God wasn’t much better.  These Ninevites didn’t deserve mercy.   No, instead, Jonah, the right one, deserved vengeance.   And if God wasn’t going to give that, then Jonah was walking away.   This God did not deserve Jonah’s services.

But now, Jonah realizes, his selfishness, his bitterness had put the innocent lives on that ship at risk.   His actions had caused their suffering and fear, suffering and fear they didn’t deserve.   And now in the belly of that fish, he realizes a painful truth.  Suddenly, in comparison to the awful Ninevites, Jonah doesn’t look so good.  He looks pretty awful, in fact.   

As with Jonah, in your life, this comparison living, distorts everything.  Because at its root lies one basic lie.   Someone is keeping score, and how do you know if you’re winning in life?  You know it by comparing yourself to everybody else. 

But guess what, you’re a terrible scorekeeper.   How do you know?   Think about how you judge  when you see someone on their phone while driving, maybe even texting.  You think.  How reckless! How stupid!  But if you call someone or send a quick test in the car, you judge it differently.  I need to do this.  Or, I can do this and not cause a problem.  It’s ok for me.

And forget how bad you are at judging yourself, you also mess up when you judge others. Why?  It’s because nobody has it as good as you think they do.   On Facebook, and in life, do you know what everyone is showing.   They are showing the highlight reel.   No one reveals the behind the scenes.   And the behind the scenes, it’s never that pretty.  

And score keeping doesn’t even lead you to a happy life.  It leads you to a driven one, an anxious one, one driven by this desire if not to win, to at least be near the top of the happiness or fulfillment or goodness rankings.    But here’s the bad news.   Someone is keeping score.   And you’ve already lost.   And not only you, everyone has.  

Many years ago, I had a Jonah moment of sorts.   It began when I read a book by the psychiatrist and writer, M. Scott Peck.  Peck had written this huge bestseller, The Road Less Travelled, that I had just loved.  (By the way, it is a terrific book. It led Peck, an atheist, to become a Christian).   Well, after reading that book, Peck became one of my spiritual gurus.   So, when I picked up this book where he and his wife traveled through Scotland and Ireland visiting ancient holy places, I thought.  This is going to be awesome.   Then Peck revealed in the book that after the Road Less Traveled made him famous, he had started cheating on his wife with some of his adoring fans.  He shared how his marriage had weathered this unfaithfulness.   But, I read that, and thought.  I can’t read this guy anymore.  He’s a sleaze-ball, a cad, a cheater.   I would never do that.  

Then a few years ago, I was dating this wonderful woman, and I did do that.  I did cheat on her.  And I hurt her deeply.   And all of a sudden, I didn’t look so good compared to M. Scott Peck.

Like Jonah, I had lost touch, with an essential truth.  In comparison to the only standard that truly mattered, I had already failed miserably.   And I’m not the only one.  Everyone has.  If you’re trying to keep score, you’re keeping score in a game you’ve already lost.   That’s because the standard is perfection.  And no human being comes close to that.     

And Jonah knows that.  In fact, he knew it before.  He just forgot.   But now he remembers.  How do you know he remembers?  He starts praying about the temple.   He realizes.  That temple offers the only chance for him to come back.   Why?

It’s because in the Temple, God had given a way to even the score.  God had given this elaborate system of sacrifices, sacrifices that would compensate for your imperfections, for your flaws, for your failings.   Now, God wasn’t so interested in these sacrifices for their own sake.  No, God wanted people to understand, they could not even the score alone.  They needed help, the help of a living innocent being, to cover the costs that their failings had brought on them and others. 

And if that makes you squeamish, then you don’t yet see how your life of comparison living causes all sorts of sacrifices right now, leads to all sorts of costs, not just for you, but for innocents caught up in this comparison driven world.   How many people suffer terrible conditions to give you cool clothes at an affordable price or so you and I can buy that cool new phone in our pockets?    Everybody is making sacrifices.  That’s not the question.  The question is.  What god are you making sacrifices for?  

And as Jonah looks to the temple, he gets it.  God has a way to make this right.  In the Temple, God has given Jonah a way to erase his failings, to restore his righteousness.  He realizes. God never gives up on anyone, not on Nineveh, and not on Jonah.   He can move forward, freed of this false way of measuring his worth by others.   In the Temple, God will bring him back to worthiness, to the only worthiness that ultimately matters. 

And what Jonah looks toward in that temple, you already have.  In that temple, God was preparing Jonah and his people for the ultimate sacrifice, the only one that would actually make things right, that would restore everyone’s worthiness now and forever.   And that sacrifice, only God could make.   And so, God did.   God, the perfect one, the complete one, in Jesus, took on all your failings, all the pain and suffering your comparison driven life had cost.   God offered up everything there, even God’s very life to rescue you.    And what does God want in return for that infinite sacrifice.  God wants nothing.  God wants you to simply accept what you already have.  And when you know that, that in the eyes of the creator of everything, you are worth that much, that God gave up that much for you.   Well, what can compare to that?   In the power of that gift, you become free of doubting your worthiness ever again; of ever striving to get it or become anxious about losing it.   You realize, you already have it.  You are worthy than you could have ever have dreamed.   And nothing, nothing will ever take it away.