What is Life?

In the midst of the holiday busyness and the diversion from our usual routine, I got behind on my daily Bible reading over the past several days, so I caught up this morning. As always, God foreordained this circumstance so that I would have an extended period of time in the Word focused on passages in which I needed to be immersed. Therefore, this morning, I have been reading in the Gospel of John chapters nine through eighteen. I took many notes, pondered extensively, and have been exceedingly blessed, but one verse in particular stood out and remains foremost in my mind: I am the resurrection and the life. -John 11:25a

I have been exposed to enough teaching to guess that the word for "life" used in this passage is the Greek word, zoe. I went to Blue Letter Bible to confirm this and to look further into its meaning. This is what I found; and rather than write it in definition form, it seems appropriate to convey the meaning as poetry.

Of the absolute fullness of life
Which belongs to God
And to the Logos—
The One who is eternal and who put on human nature
Life real and genuine
Active and vigorous
Devoted to God
Blessed
In this world
And in the world to come
Lasting forever.

I want that kind of life. Don't you? The reality is that we have that life, if we are in Christ, but we are easily distracted by the world and all that it has to offer, so we continually pursue the counterfeit rather than the real. Even things we pursue that are not inherently bad or sinful distract us from zoe. The challenge is to  discern what gives life and what does not and to single-mindedly pursue the former.

My prayer for us all this Christmas is that God would give us the wisdom and discernment to know what is life-giving and what is counterfeit and that He would empower us to pursue these things in single-minded devotion to Him.