"In him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4, ESV, italics added).
"[Y]et I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:18, NLT).
"Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; without the life, there is no living." --Thomas a Kempis
"The unexamined life is not worth living." --Socrates
Jesus did indeed say, "I am ... the life!" Note well that He didn't affirm "a" life with an indefinite article, but "the" life with a definite article. There's no other life to be had! He is not one of many ways to life, nor the best way, but the only way to life (eternal). When they say we should get a life, they are often talking in the temporal and not in light of the eternal, for we are just pilgrims passing through on our way to eternity. Only those who know Jesus are really alive, the others are dead spiritually; for Jesus came not to make bad people good, but dead people alive, according to C. S. Lewis.
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1, ESV), and God made us alive in the Spirit through faith in Christ. Dead people can do naught to please God, much less have faith, and so God had to quicken faith within us and awaken our spirits with the power to believe. You are alive for the first time spiritually when you are born again or born from above, i.e., born of the Spirit. As children of God, we share in the blessings and life of the kingdom of God.
We do not want to merely get a temporal life with all the world has to offer, when this pales in comparison to all the blessings we have in Christ. Joy, for instance, is a Christian trait of being able to rejoice under any circumstance and see that God is still in control, "... for the joy of the LORD is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10, ESV).
Man was not made for idleness, but for work and we must find our calling and fulfill God's purpose for us ("For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep ..," Acts 13:36, ESV). We're here for a purpose--God's purpose-- and we are to be like Christ, who was "a man on a mission" par excellence. People who don't know their purpose try to accomplish too much, but when we focus we get more done, because "you become effective by being selective," it's been said. Don't be fooled or sidetracked by what the world has to offer, nor love the world, for our citizenship is in heaven, and we know that because He lives, we shall also live eternally with Him in glory.
The happiness the world knows is shallow and transitory, and depends upon happenings, while our joy no one can take from us and is a fruit of the Spirit. All the things that man seeks: importance, impact, and identity are found in a relationship with Christ. Only the Christian worldview answers the questions we face today with any certitude and consistency--it applies to all of life and all academia's disciplines. Too many people are on elusive pursuits of dreams they cannot achieve or think that riches, power, and fame will bring them fulfillment. We are designed for God and according to Blaise Pascal: "If man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God? If he is made for God, why is he opposed to God?
Henry David Thoreau said that "if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps he hears a different drummer." There is only one true drummer to hear: Jesus! Two instruments tuned to the same pitch will be in tune with each other, and that's why Christians all everywhere are in fellowship with each other--they share the common bond of Christ.
The biggest mistake in thinking some make is to think that they have to be a success to amount to anything: Mother Teresa of Calcutta says we are not called to success, but to faithfulness! Einstein said we shouldn't strive to become a person of success, but of value! That's it: We are vessels of honor fit for God's service and purpose and we are merely to bear fruit where He has planted us.
In the final analysis, getting a life doesn't entail achieving the American dream, making impressions, or accomplishing anything on our own, but to be used by God in His service, bringing glory to Him (Isaiah 43:7 says this is our purpose). Knowing who you are in Christ is far more important than achieving, for God doesn't want our achievements, He wants us! In short, don't just get a life, get life itself, the life only found in Christ. In sum, even Paul said that he ventured not to boast of anything but of what Christ had accomplished through him (cf. Romans 15:18).
Soli Deo Gloria!