“I’m living ‘the good life’!” someone remarked to me several months ago.
With a big smile, they proceeded to share with me how they were reveling in a windfall of financial freedom, extra time, good health, and frequent vacations. I was genuinely happy for them. Enjoying life isn’t bad. I’m not ready to hit people on the head with a Puritanical mallet, nor is God a cosmic kill-joy. As James reminds us, “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above” (Jm. 1:17a). By God’s grace, all humanity enjoys gifts from His created order on earth. Life-giving rain showers and warmth-giving sun-rays fall upon everyone (see Matt. 5:45).
However, in the back of my mind, I knew there was a missing vital-component. God wasn’t a part of their “good life”. It’s not just that they hadn’t brought up God, the Creator-Savior-Sustainer, in our conversation. I knew they had not entered into the experience of personally knowing God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Their life looked remarkably good, but God wasn’t in the picture.
Think about it: Do you want to live “the good life”? I think we’d all nod in agreement. Nobody would voluntarily vote for unending poverty, famine, and sorrow. But what is God’s definition of the good life? As the singer-songwriter, Asaph, surveyed the people around him, he nearly fell into believing the good life could be void of God. Take a look at his rather honest, transparent lines of Hebrew poetry:
“But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. . . . their eye bulges from fatness; the imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression” (Psalm 73:2-5, 7-8a)
Reading the descriptors above may cause some of you to envision the proverbial Fat Cat. I was immediately reminded of that smarmy, slimy Star Wars character, Jobba the Hutt – sitting on his pile of wealth, violence, and lust.
Yikes…
But we wonder: What if following God’s way isn’t worth it? Would we be happier in this life without God’s instructions? These are very much the same questions that arose in Asaph’s mind:
“Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence; for I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning. If I had said, ‘I will speak thus,’ behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.” (Psalm 73:13-15)
As if to quickly cover his mouth, he thinks about what would’ve happened if he shouted his feelings out loud. Have you ever felt this way, too?
But then he leads the ancient readers and us – today – toward the true definition of “the good life.” Allow these words soak over heart:
“My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.” (Psalm 73:26-28)
The Good Life, as defined by God’s Word, is being close to God. Period.
When you begin another week of rather exhausting work…
When the decision to obey God causes you to lose a relationship…
When temptation toward greed, lust, or pride fights against your soul…
…remember: the nearness of God is your good.
“Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.” (Psalm 73:25)
In God’s Vineyard,
