(published in Delmont Record; 8-20-2013)

Enjoy Life

John 10:10 – I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (NIV)  

So many people believe that being a Christian means having a boring, dreary, and sad existence on earth, while living the pagan lifestyle of this world ensures a life of fun, friends, and excitement.  But sadly, nothing could be further from the truth.  Jesus says that He came so that people might truly live – and live life to the full.  And this is not just talking about a future life – an eternal life – in heaven.  No, Jesus also gives His followers the best chance to enjoy life on this earth.  The ways of the devil are big on promises but short on results when it comes to the enjoyment of life.

I like to think of it in terms of eating a hotdog.  The devil encourages us to consume the things of this world as if we were in a competitive eating contest.  Often those competitions revolve around eating as many hotdogs (with buns) as possible in 10 minutes, so the competitors often dip the bun first in water to make it easier to swallow.  Doesn’t eating a water-soaked hotdog just sound great?  Yet, we seem to believe that if we consume more and more things, faster and faster, that we will be satisfied in life.  Not content with your finances?  You need more money and now!  Then you would be happy.  Not content with your relationships?  Well, on to the next, hurry, before you waste too much time.  And as we gulp down the 60^th hotdog in 10 minutes, we wonder why we are not satisfied.    The problem is we are using the hotdogs of this world to try to satisfy a need in us that they were never meant to meet.  And yet, as we look around and our life seems more and more empty, we blame it on a lack of hotdogs.

We have all heard the Epicurean refrain, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die.”  That seems to be the motto of the world.  Get the most out of life before you die.  Did you know there is a similar passage in Scripture?  Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 says, A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?  To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God  (NIV).  See the similarities?  Both sayings encourage us to eat, drink, and enjoy life, but the Epicurean philosophy is without hope and without satisfaction.  Ecclesiastes reminds us that satisfaction in life must come first from God.  It tells us that apart from God all of our pursuits in this life will be empty and meaningless.  It also tells us that the enjoyment of life is a gift from God.  Only after we have our deepest needs met by Him can we be set free from the hopelessness of the pursuit of meaning in this temporary life we’ve been given.

So while the world can offer only an unsatisfying competitive eating contest where we each fight to scarf down as many hotdogs soaked in water as we can before we die, Jesus offers us something completely different.  He offers us rest.  It’s as if he has invited us to come to the ballpark and take in a game with Him on a beautiful afternoon, and as we are enjoying our surroundings, he orders us a hotdog.  Not one dipped in water so it goes down as fast as possible, but one with all the trimmings – mustard, ketchup, in my case a large mound of sauerkraut, maybe you prefer relish, and we truly enjoy it as we are surrounded by His peace.  Jesus offers you the change to relax, enjoy each day you’ve been given, enjoy the peace of His company, and enjoy the hotdogs in life.  He may not give you 60 of them in 10 minutes, but He gives you the chance to truly enjoy each one that comes along.

Psalm 23:1-3, The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.  He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. (NIV)