A couple of T-shirt slogans caught my attention recently and made me think. “Live before you Die” said one. “Live free or die” said another. I began to wonder: “Everyone lives before they die and very few people live in bondage, right? Was I missing something here?” I began to look more closely at people’s lives and realised that some just “exist” and do not really “live.” Then I came across another quote which said: “Every man dies. Not every man really lives.” How did my life measure up? Am I really living the life that God intended for me?”
One of the most quoted speeches is Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford University in 2005 in which he says, “When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like, “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll be most certainly right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
If you were to ask yourself the same question, would the answer be ‘No’ for many days in a row? If so, you need to change something!
MERE EXISTENCE?: “We are the hollow men, We are the stuffed men, Leaning together, Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when we whisper together, Are quiet and meaningless, As wind in dry grass, or rats’ feet over broken glass, In our dry cellar.” The poem “The Hollow Men” by T.S.Elliot well describes the traumatic experience of people and the hollowness of life. They wander on earth with no purpose in life, like zombies. God has not called or created us for mere existence. The Bible says, “God created man in his own image” (Gen. 1: 27). If God created us in his own image, then there has to be some meaning and purpose in our living.
DESTROYED LIFE TO DESIRABLE LIFE?: Marilyn Monroe, one of the most famous Hollywood celebrities said, “Fame doesn’t fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.” Her suicide is still a mystery. This year already the world has seen 12 bankers commit suicide. Fame and fortune don’t make any one happy, they just warm you.
Many lives have been and are destroyed because they search for meaning in life in the wrong places and Satan aids them. “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy...” - John 10: 10. After enjoying everything life had to offer, Solomon felt there was something more to life. “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men...” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). God alone can give a desirable life.
FUTILITY OF LIFE TO FRUITFUL LIFE? King Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, a man who enjoyed wealth beyond measure, pleasure beyond description and wisdom far above the wisest, says, “Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless. So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:17) “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity” (Eccl. 5:10). In spite of accumulation of wealth and searching for the secrets of success and achieving it, still we feel there is something that is dead within us. Norman Cousins calls that the tragedy of all tragedies: “The tragedy of life is not death but what we let die inside of us while we live.” Dying inside is a spiritual problem. God promises a life of fruitfulness and a life of abundance in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
SINFUL LIVING TO SIGNIFICANT LIVING? God alone can take us out of meaningless living. In the story of the prodigal son, “He got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20-25). A sinful life was changed by the compassion of God into a significant life. Life restored through Jesus Christ is the only way to significant living. Jesus regards and honours our simple, child like faith and gives us a significant life. Why hesitate? Get up and come to him.
WAKE UP AND LIVE: It may sound strange and weird to get advice from rock-stars on living but Bon Jovi says it well: “You learn what’s wrong and right, You fight and you forgive, You live before you die... Sit down son, come take my hand, Look me in the eye, take these words, promise me - You live before you die.” We do not want to hear someone’s sobering statement about our death -- “I’m not sorry he died; I’m sorry he never began to live.”
God has designed the answer to our searching; why not look in the most obvious places? An inward emptiness is a spiritual problem. We do not have to die a dozen deaths before we really die. Easter season is the gentle reminder from our creator, “I died so that you can live”, I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance. (John 10:10).
