OBSESSION £
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–nobig deal . . . right ?
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ow do you feel when you break your smartphone and have to wait a whole week for a replacement? Or imagine you get to go away to somewhere warm and sunny for two weeks—all expenses paid. It’s first class travel, 5 star hotels, white beaches and VIP entry to the clubs and restaurants. Is your first question: “Will I be able to access Instagram and Twitter?” If any of that sounds familiar, you might want to keep reading. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with smartphones or social media. But they’re good examples of how easily we can get obsessed . . .
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ow we look is a big deal; image is everything. We want to be accepted and not be seen as ‘different’. Some copy David Beckham’s tattoos, others have to wear the same designer labels as Beyoncé. But would you (and some people have) spend over £50, 000 to look like Justin Bieber? Or £15,000 to become Lindsay Lohan? How about the Katie Price superfan who took out a huge bank loan to pay for his (yes, you read that right) surgery to look just like her. And all that just to try to increase his self-confidence . . .
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n the 1960s football manager Bill Shankly put Liverpool FC onto the world map of footballing greatness. He once said, “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that!” That’s pretty inspiring! But what about the guy in a blue football shirt who is punched by someone in a red shirt simply because he supports the ‘wrong team’? Club loyalty can become so important that a blue shirt now represents an enemy, rather than a friendly rival . . .
This leaflet isn’t about having different personalities. We are all wired differently. For some, we should do everything as if our lives depended on it. Others can’t figure out what makes a person so focused that they are willing to push themselves beyond their limits. Some love social media, some don’t. Some are bothered by their relationship status, some aren’t. Some push themselves hard, some would rather chill out and chuck a few more marshmallows into their hot chocolate—both literally and figuratively!
No, this is about when we all get to the place of real Obsession, regardless of what it’s over. Obsession can lead to extreme actions, like getting intense plastic surgery or ripping a seat out of a football stand because the home team lost. But it can also take over in the everyday things of life. The question is whether that’s a problem or not—and is there anything really worth obsessing over that can actually give us what we want?
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GETTING OBSESSED
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32 year old man was found dead in his chair at the beginning of 2015 after spending 3 days non-stop gaming in an online-gaming cafe. He had died of a heart attack. Apparently it was a result of sitting still for so long, hardly sleeping and being pumped up to the eye-balls with adrenaline from the fantasy gaming action. Shockingly, the police reported that even as the dead body was taken away, the other gamers in the café carried on with their own games! They were so obsessed with gaming, that they barely noticed the dead guy next to them! Obsession had killed the man, but had also killed reality for the other gamers. For them, the fantasy world on their screens had become more important than the real world. That, in effect, is what obsession is. It’s when we allow something to become more real and more important than reality itself. It makes sense to obsess over social media, for example. These sites allow us to create our own fantasy lives and
show whatever image we want about ourselves. Our pages, blogs and walls become our own little worlds that we can control. But does this obsession (or any other for that matter) really work? Ultimately, appearance worries can still linger, what people think of us can still change and happiness can fizzle out. And the more we obsess over what people are saying about us on Twitter and what the latest celeb fashion trends are, etc., the more we become like those online gamers: fixated on just a small bit of reality and unable to have a balanced view of our lives. What is it in your life that excites you, makes you feel good or gives you a place and purpose? No matter what it might be, if you want it to give you complete satisfaction, it will certainly fail you at some point. Nothing can make us feel totally good and accepted all the time. So what’s the point? Is there anywhere we can go to have a full life and find lasting satisfaction? Is there anything truly fulfilling that won’t let us down?
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THERE IS AN ANSWER . . .
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he Bible says (maybe surprisingly) that obsession isn’t a bad thing. We all need something to make us feel secure about who we are and where we fit. The problem is that we’re obsessing over the wrong stuff. The Bible says that Jesus, who is God, came to earth as a man over 2000 years ago. It also says he is the one we’re meant to be obsessed with. Jesus said: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Jesus isn’t just a part of reality to fixate on; he is the very centre of life itself! Only by knowing him and centring our lives round him can we gain the assurance and satisfaction we’re looking for. After all, he is the one who made us and designed us! He is the only one who really understands us; even more than we understand ourselves! Without God, we only ever get hints of this “full” life he offers. We can enjoy the good things he has made, but they themselves are not what we really need. Edmilson, a Brazilian footballer who
represented his country between 2000-07, understood this. He won the football World Cup in 2002. But here’s what he said about it: “As great as it felt to win the World Cup, such achievements offer little compared to what God has to offer . . . it’s all in vain if you don’t know Jesus.” Edmilson had a fantastic football career, yet as good as it was, he knew football couldn’t satisfy all his needs or give him eternal life. Only God can do that. The Bible explains that God created us to live on his earth in a safe, caring and loving relationship with him. And he gives us every good thing, like relationships, games, clothes, music and so on, so that we can enjoy them thankfully, relying on him to provide them. He is also eternal (he lives forever) and he created us to live with him forever after our time on earth. He made us for himself, and even describes us as his “masterpieces”! He gives us purpose, value, somewhere to belong and lasting satisfaction. Even though everything else in life may change or break, he remains the same and will always love us and be with us.
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BUT THERE IS ALSO A PROBLEM . . .
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e can’t simply join up with God again, just like that. Our attempt to fill our lives by chasing after things and people, whilst ignoring our Creator, is a big deal. We can’t just expect God to be okay with it.
not only wrong as an idea, but is hugely insulting to the giver of the gift.
Why? Because we have tried to go it alone! We want to live our own lives, find acceptance and ‘make it’, often without even thinking about God, let alone living according to his perfect character and ways. We try to find our happiness in anything but him!
The Bible tells us that the choice to live our lives without God is eternal; that is, if we choose to ignore God throughout our lives, then we will be separated from him, and all his goodness, after we die. That means we’ll exist forever without happiness, friendship, love, games and everything else he gives us to enjoy. We will be left with pain, grief and unending death. That is what separation from God truly looks like. And it is the eternal penalty we face for leaving God out of our lives. What’s more, there is nothing we can do to make up for ignoring our Creator.
In fact, we don’t even acknowledge that it’s God who has provided all the stuff we enjoy and obsess over. We even value those things above God himself! It’s a little like saying “thank you” to the concert ticket in your hand or to your new set of clothes, rather than to the person who gave them to you. That’s
We’re made to have God as the centre of our lives. But we have replaced him with other things.
FOLLOWING JESUS
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n order to get right with God, we must understand that we cannot find our way back by ourselves, even if we wanted to. On our own there is no way to God. But God hasn’t left us on our own. When Jesus came to earth, he paid the penalty for us! He suffered and died in order to bring us back to God and “full” life—both now and when we die!
All we can do, and all we have to do, is to agree with God that we need Jesus to pay the price for our wrongdoing, and that without him we are hopeless. We need to admit we have been fixated on the wrong thing and that we need God to be the centre of our lives. He is the only one who can meet all our needs, calm all our fears and give us total (and eternal) assurance.
He did this by choosing to die in our place. When Jesus died, nailed to a cross of wood, he wasn’t just dying a horrible death; he was dying our death and paying the penalty for us. He received God’s correct and just anger towards us, so that we don’t have to face it. And then he did something that can give us real security. He rose again three days later. By coming back to life, he beat death and can offer us God’s forgiveness, along with new and unending life.
It’s all down to God’s goodness towards us—that he sees our helpless condition and cares for us anyway—rather than on anything we can do to earn his approval. Jesus gave the promise: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus came to make unending and satisfying life with God a possibility for all of us. A full life with Jesus in control means a life that allows God to bring out our full potential, and achieve all that He wants through us.
And it’s not just that we can be forgiven by God; when we trust Jesus, we become God’s own children!
Since he made us, along with our own unique personality, he alone knows what will truly bring us lasting satisfaction— letting him be the centre of our lives.
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GETTING OBSESSION RIGHT
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esus offers us a “full” life. As God’s children, Christians live with God, enjoying his peace and love. In fact, Jesus offers us ‘real life’, not simply the social media-style fantasy world we sometimes try to create to feel better about ourselves. With God we can have meaningful lives as we live for him and for the purpose of getting to know him better. He alone can give us the lasting satisfaction we need. That doesn’t mean we won’t face problems, job loss, rejection or illness. But it means that we can still be satisfied even if those things happen, because our satisfaction will be based on God, his love and his promise of a place in heaven. When we put God in charge of our lives, he is the one thing that remains unchanging and reliable, even when everything around us—our likes, our hopes and even our friends—let us down. But following Jesus isn’t like following another person on Twitter. Jesus isn’t just an addition to our lives. He alone
is God, to be followed and loved first, making him our one good obsession. Everything else (social media, football, celebrities, etc.) can stay as they are: things. We don’t need to ask them to fulfil us—only Jesus gives us full lives! Getting obsessed with Jesus means putting him before everything else. It means we look to God for our acceptance, purpose and satisfaction, just as he designed us to. This is a healthy obsession, because he is the only one in the world who can fulfil us! An obsession with God puts everything else in our lives in perfect balance. But he must take first place, always. The life of a Christian is not just a onetime decision to trust Jesus to pay our penalty and give us new life. It is a daily decision to allow him to be in charge of every part of our lives as we follow his plan, not our own. This is sometimes easy and sometimes difficult, as in all of our relationships, but we can trust that God is always good, always loves us and is always on our side.
ď€ If this leaflet has helped you think further about Jesus, the best idea is to get hold of a Bible and start reading some more. We encourage you to make contact with a local church as well, where you can ask any questions you might have. Our Daily Bread Ministries would also like to help! Spending time reading the Bible each day keeps our focus on God, and less on our obsessions. We publish a regular booklet called Our Daily Bread, which will help you to read the Bible and talk with God each day. You can check it out online at odb.org or request a copy using the contact details on the back of this booklet. We’d love to help! You can also check us out online at ourdailybread.org/uk to see the many other resources available to you!
MORE?
Want to read more about why Jesus died for you? Visit ourdailybread.org/lookingdeeper to see more resources about who Jesus is and what it means to be a Christian. Do you want to start reading the Bible for yourself? The gospel of John is a great starting point. Look it up online if you don’t have a Bible to hand. Ask the person who gave you this leaflet to read through John’s account with you, so you can ask them any questions you might have. If you want to look up more of what the Bible says about this topic, here are a few chapters that will help: Psalm 2; Luke 9:23-27, 12:16-21; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. When looking at these bits of the Bible, try to read a few of the verses around them, to think about the context of what is being said. You can read more leaflets like this in the Looking at Life series at ourdailybread.org/lookingatlife.
Scripture taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved. © 2016 by Our Daily Bread Ministries. All rights reserved. Printed in the United Kingdom
Check out more leaflets in the Looking at Life series at
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