need is necessary

"We are not going to learn how to grab hold of true and divine joy when our circumstances are good - it's going to be when we have nothing other than God to cling to with both hands."

Question: Do things have to be rock bottom dire before one can say "Jesus is all that matters; Jesus is all I need"? Do you think that it's true that one has to hit rock bottom before they can truly embrace Christ as their treasure? Without knowledge of their need, can or would anyone come to Christ?

I think need is necessary. You can't live out Jesus being all you need unless you come to appreciate, value, and treasure that Jesus is all you have and you can't do that unless you have been stretched beyond your human limits. Suffering, grief, pain - these are catalysts that bring us to our metaphorical and actually knees.

Take the story of the prodigal son. "But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want" (Luke 15:14). The prodigal son was just that, a squanderer, wastefully extravagant with his time, money, relationships, and soul. His being in "want" was the foundation of his awakening that lead Him to go home to his Father. He spent all he had and was at the end of himself.

Need is necessary for new birth.

I have semicolon tattoo on my left wrist which I have had several years now. If you don't know, the semicolon has come to be a symbol for mental health awareness and suicide prevention. The premise is that instead of a period which would end a sentence, a semicolon continues the story on; we are all the authors of our own lives and we chose the semicolon over the period - we chose to go on despite the pain, the difficulties, the struggles because our story isn't over yet.

I got the tattoo after going through a period of devastating loss, sadness, turmoil, and rejection. On multiple fronts my life was just dark horizons. At least that is how I saw it at the time. My rock bottom pit of darkness, shame, and sadness. Jesus is the Light that reached out and pulled me out of the drowning dark waves. How can you know that Jesus is all you need? Because He literally is all we have.

And who is He? He is kind, merciful, good, honest, sincere, righteous, light is who He is, The Way, The Truth, The Life, pure, holy, sinless, perfect, worthy, helpful, faithful, honoring, obedient, a leader by example, unique, the singular son, wise, omniscient, constant, present, near, The Alpha, The Omega, The Beginning, The End, eternal, internal, flesh, Spirit, Man, God. Need Him? There is nothing without Him. xo