Every day, folks of diverse persuasions toss about bizarre concepts on life ad nauseam. I posed a question to ChatGPT, (the AI simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to learn and respond like humans). What is “The Good Life” and how is it attained? Amid varieties of notions, another trendy maxim popped up, “The American Dream!” Unsurprisingly, none of these concepts have singular interpretations. They represent views as diverse as the mouths that dispense them. In other words, whenever someone blurts out good life slogans, you’ll be foolish to think you know what they are talking about!
The good life embodies a range of theories on what constitutes human happiness. But since humans don’t derive happiness from mutual stimuli, one must define the philosophy of a cited maxim. Hedonism, for instance, posits that the good life is pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Thus, to experience the good life, you maximize happiness by minimizing suffering. The utilitarian perspective goes a step further by promoting happiness for majorities of people. Early Greek philosopher, the famous Aristotle, fielded a eudaimonia concept, encouraging cultivation of individual potential. Existentialism advances individual choices, embracement of freedom, etc. These concepts are numerous and extensive. But if you dig a little deeper into acquisition of what’s promised, things get mucky, revealing the sheer emptiness behind very prominent world theories.
The American dream is an amalgamation of several of these philosophies. Personal freedoms, economic prosperity, individual rights, equal opportunity for all, etc. are a bedrock of American psyche. While these views are all too common, they basically focus on uncertain terrestrial affairs. And no, I did not say terrestrial affairs are irrelevant, or that you shouldn’t mind them.
As a Christian who takes the Bible as the infallible Word of God, I see shortsightedness in any philosophy that limits its vista to earthly life. There is much more to human worth than the scope of a lifespan, or the experiential aspects of this soiled planet.
Man is Too Great for a Single Lifetime
Think about individuals who make significant contributions to society. Freedom fighters. Inventors. Explorers. Medics. Community guides. Researchers… If the enormous endowments on humans are meant to expire in a lifespan, that would be serious mockery, and a shortchanging of divine investment. For all their toils and triumphs, few people ever get a chance to enjoy their fruit before old age and death robs them of the opportunity. Mortality upends skills of indispensable brains, carries away badly needed community members, and so on. You cannot muse along these lines without getting disillusioned by the mystery of life. If the mental capacities accrued by humans is all lost at the time of death, then life is basically meaningless.
But life is not meaningless, make no mistake. We exit earthly life only to enter the next world. If you think that God invests so much in a person only to discard him after seventy or eighty years of earthly sojourn, you’d have to believe that God is exceedingly wasteful. What someone interprets as ‘the good life’ underscores his/her views on earthly sojourn and the afterlife.
Firstly, earth is simply not the venue for ‘the good life’. For one thing, whatever one may acquire for personal convenience, contrary forces will rudely impose inconveniences. War. Misfortune. Sickness. Betrayal. Death. Inclement weather. Misrule. Natural and manufactured disasters. Divergent cultures.… A place of ‘the good life’ should afford good life, but planet earth has no sure benefits to bestow. Too many things go wrong, and the meagre traces of happiness are sporadic at best. Many people hurt themselves chasing mirages of the good life, but they never stop to ask if they are seeking the right things, or in the right places.
Invitation to Look Elsewhere
Of the billions of humans that have traversed the earth, none dwelt anywhere else before arriving here. Man thinks earthly thoughts because that is what is familiar. He is a product of his environment. But the earth we live in today is not the same one that Adam inherited. Adam, the first human being, walked with God and operated in capacities far superior to the modern experience. He was God’s representative on earth. He walked and talked with God. He related to God as his Father and had authority to transact affairs of life on behalf of God. Adam was in charge. He had peace, power, wisdom, unlimited resources, a beautiful, loving, and intelligent wife, a garden home, and access to God’s constant fellowship. If you like, Adam had the good life! If we seek the good life, we should seek to reinstate the Paradise that Adam lost!
Jesus came from heaven to pave the way for reconciliation between God and man. He came to pay the penalty of man’s rebellion, to be the sacrifice that atones for sin. In other words, Jesus came to give us access to the good life. What was lost through Adam’s sin, Jesus came to restore to mankind. But bear in mind that earth, as a place of rebellion, is defiled beyond reclamation. Blood of the oppressed cries from one end of the globe to the other. The eternal home of God’s children is another place, one created in the infinite knowledge of God; a place where sin and satan have absolutely no access to. This world is not it!
Says the word of prophecy, 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Rev 21:1-4). In a nutshell, that is the good life you should aspire!
A Perfect Example
Adam was the son of God. His failure cast the entire human race into suffering and pain. The rebellion of our first human parents sold their earthly paradise to God’s archenemy. Satan runs the earth now with cruelty and vengeance. Look around and see if that isn’t so. What was sold to satan will not be reclaimed for God. The earth will dissolve into oblivion! (See 2 Peter 3)
Let’s talk about Jesus for a moment. The Son of God came to open the way to superior realms of reality, The Good Life. His mind was so heavenly conscious, nothing on earth could divert His mission. When satan tried to bribe Him for worship in exchange for worldly glories, His reaction exposed the absurdity of that enticement. How do you ask the King of heaven to trade His place for a depraved world? Such is the mindset of a person who knows what the good life is all about!
To undertake the Father’s assignment, Jesus clothed Himself with humility. Your redemption and mine was God’s ultimate objective. Jesus put aside His divinity and took on human nature so He could save humans. He humbled Himself and obeyed God to the point of death on the humiliation of a Roman cross. Doing God’s bidding earned Jesus the greatest applause from the Father. Paul says, 9 For this reason also [because He obeyed and so completely humbled Himself], God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow [in submission], of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess and openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (sovereign God), to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11.
Earthly minded powerbrokers killed Jesus to eliminate competition. The world destroys what it cannot outdo. On earth, it’s always about who shines more than others, who controls more resources, who has greater political clout, whose elite status is more enviable… It is always about perceived pleasures of the brief earthly sojourn, never about the eternal! The mindset of this dark planet measures the good life on scales of food and drink, leisure and luxury, greed and control. It all axis around the here and now. But with an endless eternity pegged on earthly decisions, how asinine is the fellow who exchanges eternal treasure for temporal dross! I pray you don’t get caught in that snare.
The ancient psalmist, taking delight in the promises of God’s eternal riches, adds melody to these exalting words; Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. (Psalm 89:15). And while reminding gentiles of the heavens to which they should aspire, Paul warns, 1 Therefore if you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, sharing in His resurrection from the dead], keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value]. (Col 3:1,2)
Do you know what the good life is? Is your heart and mind attuned to it?