Living the Good Life

THE GOOD LIFE IS MORE THAN PHYSICAL EASE WITH FEW PROBLEMS
“If you say that someone is living the good life, you mean that they are living in comfort and luxury with few problems or worries.” (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers). Is this really the good life?

The wise Solomon tested this view and searched to see “what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives” (Ecclesiastes 2:3). He had the means to try everything. In his search he left no stone unturned. “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure” (Ecclesiastes 2:10).

HE SEARCHED FOR HAPPINESS IN WISDOM
“I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly” (Ecclesiastes 1:17). He was highly successful in his search. "Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem” (Ecclesiastes 1:16). What was his conclusion? “And I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (Ecclesiastes 1:17,18).

HE SEARCHED IN LAUGHTER AND FLESHLY PLEASURE
“I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore, enjoy pleasure….’ I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly…. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds” (Ecclesiastes 2:1-8).

HE TRIED TO FIND HAPPINESS IN BUILDING
“I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove” (Ecclesiastes 2:4-6). His conclusion? “This also is folly.”

WEALTH COULD NOT SATISFY
“I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces” (Ecclesiastes 2:8).
Solomon summarized his search and his findings.
“Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.
I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,
For my heart rejoiced in all my labor;
And this was my reward from all my labor.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done
and on the labor in which I had toiled;
and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no profit under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11).
His final conclusion was “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all.
For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).
Anyone reading this book who does not believe in a life after death will hardly agree with my writings. I firmly believe Paul’s statement that godliness has the “promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8-9).

THE GOOD LIFE INCLUDES SUFFERING
Any writing about the good life that does not come to grips with the universal phenomena of suffering is not complete. A wealthy patron of the opera had discovered a young operatic singer with a beautiful soprano voice. He wanted his opera critic friend to hear her sing. They attended an opera in which the young woman was the lead singer. After the performance he asked the critic for his evaluation. The critic said, “She has perfect pitch, sings with ease the highest note and flows smoothly into the lower ones. She just has not lived long enough for her suffering to give it the richness the great ones have.”

Many have regarded suffering as a privilege, especially when suffering for a noble cause. Christian martyrs joyfully met their death fortified with this belief. Ignatius, the bishop of the Church at Philippi, was arrested about AD 110 and sent to Rome to be fed to the lions in the arena. On his way he wrote six letters to churches and one to his friend Polycarp. In his letter to the church at Rome he wrote, “Let me be food for the wild beasts through whom I can reach God. I am God’s wheat, and I am being ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I might be proved to be pure bread” (Lightfoot, J.B. and Harmon, J.R., The Apostolic Fathers, p.103).

Many could summarize their lives as Jacob answered pharaoh when he asked him his age: “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life” (Genesis 47:9). Job said, “Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). And, "Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble” (Job 14:1). Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). Christians are not exempted. The good as well as the bad are called upon to suffer