Seth Carter

Have you ever thought to yourself, “My life is kind of like a pie?” No? If you’re like me, you are perhaps more likely to think, “I wish I had some pie.” But I digest … er, I mean, I digress.

We tend to feel our life is divided into slices, dishing out our time and resources accordingly. Our categories may differ in the specifics, but broadly we each have various degrees of responsibility and involvement in areas like: school, work, family, spirituality, diet and exercise, mental health and social life.

With these categories in mind, we may tend to take up a life that is fairly compartmentalized. We want to leave work at work, not bringing home office drama to mix with the drama already involved in family life. We may go ahead and splurge on another helping of dessert (pie anyone?) trying not to think about how our diet and exercise plan is going. Maybe we are not considering how our relationship with Jesus Christ factors into our job, social life, mental health or perhaps even our spirituality. Often we live by what some have called a “secular-sacred divide.”

For someone who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus this may appear to work, at least in a fashion. A person may labor to create really good looking pieces of life and hold it all together … on the outside. But there isn’t a connection bringing continuity and lasting fulfillment. What a disappointment to cut into a pie and find no filling!

Reader, if this describes you, please reconsider! Repent! Reorient and build your life according to a recipe that satisfies. Look at the true eternal life that is available to those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus.

In the New Testament letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote: “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4, CSB) 

Any who will “confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,” (Romans 10:9) will be saved! Then the pie of life can be filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

Jesus will not be isolated to one slice of life: He wants to be our center. When you cut into a fresh pie, the yummy juicy filling slides around a bit, defying the bounds dictated by the wedge you’ve cut. That delicious center is actually under the surface of every piece in the pan. It’s everywhere and it’s the same in each piece. Jesus is like that. Under the surface in every segment of life you can find Jesus at work.

In short, Jesus is the pie! Jesus is present at school or work with you! Jesus is with you when you get home from school or work! Jesus is interested in your mental health and your physical well being too, more than you are!

His claims, to be “our life,” are real and eternal; he’s the whole pie, not just the “religious slice.”

(Seth Carter is the director of Campus Ventures in Powell.)