Understanding Life

If we are to understand life, including its purpose and its goal, and how we can get the most happiness and enjoyment from it, then we must start at the beginning. “In the beginning God . . . “ is the way the Bible begins. This also is where we must begin, if we are to understand and enjoy life. That is, we must begin with God. He alone created life, and He alone can explain it, its purpose and its goal.

Apart from God you cannot understand life. God is light. He also is the Creator and Giver of life. Apart from Him life is dark and has no meaning. The person who denies the existence of God, or who refuses to follow His direction for this life, loses countless blessings, and walks in continual darkness. Such a person lives, but does not know what life means. His whole life, dark and unstable like a rudderless ship, is an easy prey for the storms of life.

Separated from God you cannot be truly happy. There are those who think that happiness comes from owning many things, from having a good job or from receiving praise from other people. But this is not true. The Bible teaches that a person can only experience true happiness when his or her relationship to God, which has been broken by sin, is made right again. In other words, the sin question must be settled first. We must come back to God before we can experience true happiness and peace.

Everything created by God has been made for a certain environment. Each creature can only be truly happy or content, if he is in that environment. Outside of it, he cannot be content. For example, fish have been created by God to live in water. That is their natural environment, and in water they are content. But if taken out of water, they can only flounder and die. The same principle is true of large birds like eagles. They were created to fly unhindered in the air. If caught by man and placed in cages, they walk to and fro, ever looking outward and upward. They are no longer content.

Man too has been created for a certain environment. He has been created to live in close relationship to God, to walk and talk with Him, to know and love Him. But sin has separated us from God. Sin has taken us out of our natural environment. And so we flounder like fish out of water. We pace to and fro like birds in a cage. We seek and seek after happiness and peace, but all our efforts are in vain. We live in uncertainty. Life has no meaning and no goal. We live only to eat, drink and be merry.

From the beginning it is well for you, dear reader, to understand one thing. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all they that do His commandments.” Psalms 111:10

“And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’” Job 28:28

John E. Capron – Guest Blogger