God Running is a place for anyone who wants to love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.
I wish to give all to Jesus because He makes me understand that He alone is perfect happiness. All!—all shall be for Him! And even when I have nothing…, I will give Him this nothing.
–St. Thérèse of Lisieux
Last week I shared a graph that illustrates the relationship between self-surrender and peace. If you’re interested you can learn more here: Self-Surrender: Following Christ for Exhausted People.
In today’s article I just want to share what I suppose could be another graph (don’t worry, I’ll spare you the analytical illustration this time). However if I were to share a graph, it would illustrate the relationship between recognizing that happiness and fulfillment come from Christ, and how giving yourself wholly to Jesus in response to that realization results in happiness.
Blaise Pascal once wrote about the futility of trying to find happiness through created things:
“This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object: in other words by God himself.”
People sometimes paraphrase what Pascal wrote by putting it this way: There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.
Many of us are discovering how the pursuit of created things leaves us unfulfilled and unsatisfied. Over my lifetime, I’ve chased all kinds of things: Video games, movies, and other entertainment. Advancement in my career. A big investment portfolio. Skill at basketball or tennis. Girls (before I was married, of course). Besides being exhausting, the thing about these pursuits is that when I’m unsuccessful, I’m unhappy. And, even when I’m successful, five minutes after my success, I find that I’m empty again!
For much of my life as a Christian, even my pursuit of Jesus was askew. I pursued him for the benefits associated with Christ: Peace, love, self-control, joy, avoiding hell, etc. But late in life I figured out what Thérèse of Lisieux shared here at the beginning of this article. And that is the truth about what is the greatest reward, the only true reward, the only reward that truly fulfills and leads to true happiness. That truth is this:
Jesus himself is the reward.
He alone is perfect happiness.
Recognizing that changes everything.
Notes
Thérèse of Lisieux, The Little Way: Reflections on the Joy of Smallness in God’s Infinite Love, Whitaker House, April 4, 2023
Blaise Pascal, Pensées, (originally written in 1658), 1995, Penguin Classics
Image from Tolentino Basilica di San Nicola Cappellonee, Tolentino, Italy, Wikimedia Commons
The Love Like Jesus Book
Available on Google Play Books and on Amazon!
Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)
Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:
- Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
- How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
- The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
- How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
- How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
- How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
- How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
- How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
- How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.
With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.
A life of loving like Jesus. (Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon and Google Play Books.)
We also recently released the audiobook version, beautifully narrated by Jonathan St. John. It’s available on the following platforms:
It’s also available on Amazon, Hoopla, Audiobooksnow, Chirp, Libro, Overdrive, and virtually everywhere audiobooks are offered.
