John 14:6 (NIV) Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

I was talking to a group of men the other day and one of them was sharing how his life had been radically transformed through a relationship with Jesus. Before being saved, he was in and out of prison, was coping with life by using drugs, and he couldn't maintain a relationship. His life was a complete mess until he found Jesus. But before he got into his story, he said something that struck me. He said that he had found the solution. He didn’t specify what the issue was that he found the solution to, but we all knew what he was talking about. He was talking about the solution to life.

Life is complicated and many times painful and full of problems and trouble. People have many kinds of coping mechanisms to deal with life, but none of them solve anything and most of them lead to trouble. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that 86.6% of men aged 18 or older drink alcohol, while 83.3% of women in the same age group did the same. While many of those people are not alcoholics, they do drink regularly and they do it to cope with life because alcohol has a numbing effect. That’s just one vice that people turn to. There are many others and they exist because people are desperately seeking a solution to the turmoil that life many times presents and to the empty void that they feel inside their soul. Nothing can stop life from coming at you hard and nothing can fill the void that people feel. There is no solution to those two things...other than Jesus.

Jesus said that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and therein lies the solution. If life seems senseless to you and without meaning or purpose, then Jesus is the Way to make sense of it all. As the one who made us, He knows what make us tick and He reveals our purpose to us and brings meaning to our lives. We were created by Him and for Him. And while the so-called intelligent people of this world tell us that there is no such thing as absolute truth, Jesus tells us that He is the Truth. What He tells us is not only true, but it leads to stability, contentment and a path that keeps us safe. Finally, He is the Life. Life originates in Him and He sustains everything that is alive (Colossians 1:16-17) and if we receive Him as our Lord and Savior, He brings us from merely existing to living the life that is truly life. Then He continues to be the Life for us as we will live with Him forever in eternity. He is the solution to everything that plagues us and to everything that our soul searches for! There’s no one like Jesus and no one but Jesus who can do that for us.

Pastor Joey Vazquez