Every reason I do not want to believe or sojourn with Jesus as God is negated by Jesus responses in John 3 & 4.

In John 3, Jesus addresses a religious man who was looking for something in his religious experience. In John 4, Jesus addresses a irreligious woman who kept looking for something in her hedonistic attempts at escapism. I can see myself in both people. For years before and after I started learning from Jesus I deeply wanted to be a religious person. I worked hard at it. I failed miserably. Jesus affirmed to the religious guy in John 3 that he could not find what he was looking for in religion.

I often have struggled with the opposite extreme of hedonistic escapism. I have for years been addicted to the most powerful of all drugs. My drug of choice has always been the desires of my selfish impure heart. For the better part of a decade I struggled off and on with porn, enjoying popular culture including the stuff good Christians shouldn’t like, and a dozen other hang ups. I did all these things simply because I was following my heart. Every attempt at enjoying hedonistic escapism failed miserably. The good news is Jesus let the woman in John 4 know that she could not find what she was looking for in hedonistic escapism either.

Jesus is rather remarkable in the way he reveals himself to some of us. Sometimes he gives us our hearts desires to show us how assine and hollow that they are in and of themselves. Sometimes he lets us taste hell so we can come to despise it. Sometimes hell is religion, sometimes it is hedonist abandon. Regardless they are both so very lacking of the ultimate real life.

Sojourn means temporary stay. Life is temporary. We are as Karl Sagan said star dust. Our universe including all of us are destined to be consumed. Billion years from now or in billionth of a second it will happen. Jesus promises that we can be so much more than stardust. His resurrection proved that there was more to the physical side of life. Jesus death brought eternal life for those who look upon him for Life (John 3:14-15). Jesus life brought death to our temporal hellish desires if we look upon him for Life (John 4:25-26). Jesus promises those who sojourn with him will find what they are looking for. It is Him. That is why I sojourn with Jesus. I’ve found what I was looking for and He found me.