Dear Bruce, What is a good life?

Dear Bruce,

You write a lot about following God’s purposes for your life, knowing “Him”, and living the kind of life God calls us to live. I am not a spiritual person, and have not really thought a great deal about these kinds of things, and just kinda live life as it comes to me. I try to have fun, live a good life, and try not to intentionally hurt anyone along the way. What is so bad about that? Isn’t that about all we need to do? My philosophy is get a good education, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, take care of your family, and be a good person. Why do we need more than that?

Jim

Jim,

Good question. Your perspective, statistically, is quite a common one. And while it may, at first glance, seem “reasonable” enough, if you really dissect it and think it over, it clearly is not so sound a way of looking at life. I will explain.

First of all, you seem persuaded that you, and perhaps we all, should live life aiming for some sort of “good”, a moral standard if you will. The difficulty in suggesting that people ought to live a “good” life while removing God from the equation is significant. In doing so you have eliminated the standard of measurement for “good”. If no absolute moral standard exists for “goodness” then how are we to truly know what is ultimately and finally good or not? In some cultures they eat their neighbors, in others that is not so “good”. Some people would espouse a “survival of the fittest” approach to life, while you espouse a “do unto others…” approach. Which one is right?

Without a final and authoritative measuring stick for true goodness how do you know, really, when you have done good? Some abandon home and family to pursue their own professional good. Some leave a spouse for a “good” time. The terrorists responsible for 9/11 had been taught all their lives that such an act was a “good” thing. In our eyes it was evil and tragic. Who is right? Who is the final authority on such matters?

More practically, what happens to your approach for those who see education and family fail them? There are many brilliant minds walking our streets homeless. Many a degree goes unused. Many useful and important research degrees don’t pay all that well. Many who once started with a great education and a great job see life fall apart and lose everything. What then? What is left when an education was a person’s salvation and it fails them? What is a person to do when education provides them with access to power, money, and access, and then the access leads them down destructive roads? The tales of such horrors are blasted all over our newspapers and television screens daily. Sometimes the MBA, six figure salary, and acclaim lead people to implode. Many neglect family and ethics for the sake of a pay check.

Finally, I would urge you to consider what is an increasingly mounting problem in our culture. We tend to view success, fame, money, and pleasure as the golden dream. Yet, story after story comes to us from many corners of our culture telling the truth about lives lived for the pursuit of the good life. Money, success, and pleasure are not bad in and of themselves, but when separated from a standard of deeper measurement and meaning, they tend to ruin people or at least leave them utterly unfulfilled. I could document many high profile and many not so high profile accounts of such a reality, but I do not have the space in this setting to do so. Many who have “made their dreams come true” have found those dreams wanting once they are at the top.

One final thought. The one thing I do admire about your outlook is the call to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. I would like to remind you, however, that this injunction is borrowed from biblical teaching. You see, for all of us who want to live a good life, we are continually brought back to the reality that some tangible, real, and unique standard of truth exists. In fact, this is the only possible explanation, logically speaking, that gives rise to the human desire to see beauty, truth, and goodness in what is around us. The fact that any of us even catagorize good and bad demonstrates that such realities do exist and do so beyond our own definition of things.

God defines goodness. If you truly desire to live a “good” life, you must know what goodness is in reality. There are six billion people on the planet. How are we to determine what is truly good if each person is given the freedom to construct conflicting views of goodness? There is a standard and it is derived from the One who is ultimately good. Living life to the full comes from knowing Him and walking according to His good plan. The sense of knowing that one is following God’s plan is what holds us together and provides meaning and joy even when all else is falling apart around us. The good life is more than circumstance, and bigger, much bigger, than the American dream.

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org

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