Advertising media is constantly telling us we “deserve to have it all”. American culture encourages us to reach for the stars and to pursue success. From an early age many are taught we can be anything we want to be. As we mature, we discover what all those who have gone before us already know. We actually can’t have it all.
There aren’t enough hours in a lifetime to do everything we want to do. There isn’t enough money to bankroll our every whim. Instead we must determine which things are most important to us to pursue and leave the rest littered on the field of unfulfilled promises and shattered dreams.
You can’t have it all – at least not as the world would have you believe. But you can have it all in Jesus. The problem is our goals are wrong. We want the things the world wants, which is exactly what keeps us from truly having it all in Jesus. If you really want to have it all, surrender everything to Christ. He is everything you will ever need in life and a whole lot more. Want to feel loved? How about soaking in the embrace of the One who is love by very definition? Want security? Who better to rely on than the One who sees everything that’s going on around you at every second of every day?
The only things you won’t find in Jesus are greed, selfishness, pride, evil, and sin. But who wants any of that anyway? Aren’t those the things from which we’re trying to get away? By contrast, pursuing “having it all” by the world’s definition encourages and necessitates most of those undesirable behaviors and characteristics. We really are chasing what we can’t have by engaging in behaviors we don’t want to impress people who don’t care or even like us! Can’t you see the frivolity and ridiculousness of such a pursuit?
Accomplishing anything significant in the world takes great focus and dedication. Think of Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals in the Olympics. That was the culmination of a lifetime of work and a lifetime of dedication and disciplined habit. Big accomplishments don’t happen overnight. They require years of focused, intense work. If you are diligent, you may reach your goal and perhaps even win the world’s applause. But for all that work you will only have achieved a single thing. You will continue to hear the whispers telling you to press on, that you can have it all. But you can’t. It will never happen.
You can’t have it all unless instead of striving you choose to surrender. You can have it all only if you choose to devote every ounce of your being to the mission of Jesus. You will find rest, peace, love, joy, and ultimate contentment in the arms of Christ. He offers everything to you. He actually yearns to give it all to you, and it breaks His heart when we don’t take Him up on the offer. You can live your life in the pursuit of having it all and fail miserably. Or you can stop pursuing and allow yourself to be captured by the magnificent glory of God; and then you can have it all.