I have often been dissatisfied with my life. I resonate with a worship song that says, “There must be more than this,” because over and over I have wondered if there is something more. It wasn’t until recently that I realized this curiosity is the hidden motivation behind many of the decisions I make. The jobs I have worked, the places I have travelled to, the degree I’m pursuing and the dreams I dream all point back to this one question: What does it really mean to be alive?

Over the past month or so I have pondered this question. I have wondered if I simply need to learn how to be thankful and have come to the conclusion that yes, I do need to learn to be thankful. I have received too many blessings to live in discontentment. But I believe there is more to it. In the moments when I brim with gratitude I know that it is only a taste of something better and continue to long for life in all its fullness.

Abundant life –– that’s why Jesus came. He came so we could have life the way it was meant to be — free of evil, anxiety and fear, and full of goodness, peace and joy. I have tasted this sort of life, but I still long for it. I long for it to come in all its fullness.

Sometimes I feel I am the only one who is waiting and searching for this fullness of life, but I am convinced it is the very longing of creation. The world we live in groans for something better, for liberation from its bondage to decay.

I have become convinced of something else too. The reason why I have such a deep desire for abundant life is not because Jesus has underdelivered. Rather, it is because in Jesus I have experienced a taste of what life really is and it has left me incredibly hungry for more.

So I wait eagerly and expectantly with creation for Jesus to reveal life in perfection and fullness. In the meantime I savor the life I have been given and thank God for it. I pray and labor to the end that others might experience it too. I gladly serve a king who is making all things new. His kingdom is coming and it brings abundant life — life as it was meant to be.