Lessons for Living from the Bible in Everyday English by Dennis Magee

In the book of Ecclesiastes, God tells us to accept our human condition, our birth, death, and stages in between, and try to live the life we’ve been given as fully as possible. There are at least three main areas of life where people can find it easy to fall short of this. Everyone falls into this to one degree or another, and in extreme cases, this can lead to an unfulfilled meaningless life. Life is precious and for one to waste it is a terrible thing.

One area is one’s body. The body is wonderously made, and can renew and heal itself. But over time, dissipations such as eating too much, eating the wrong foods, drinking too much alcohol, using drugs and not exercising regularly can take their toll, resulting in a reduced feeling of well-being and sometimes early death. Controlling what one eats and drinks are passive resolutions that most people can at least partially implement. But the body is designed to be used and forcing oneself to exercise vigorously and regularly, can be more difficult. It’s easy to get into the rut of too much inactivity, especially with age. Not having time is always a convenient excuse; but then needing to take time out to be sick or see a doctor can be the result. Regular exercise affords not only the benefit of the exercise itself, but enables one to enjoy the times of inactivity to a much greater extent. It is the contrast between vigorous activity and inactivity that makes this possible. This is not the same as feeling better when one stops hitting oneself with a hammer. Moderating and reducing one’s dissipations and exercising lead to a state of physical well-being, and provide a foundation for a good overall quality of life.

Another area where people can fall short of living life as fully as possible is in their overall perspective of life and in their lifestyle choices. Much of people’s lives are spent maintaining their lifestyles. We work for wages in order to provide shelter, food, recreation and a full range of all our needs. But if we plan and allocate our time and finances wisely, we can break the routine of simply maintaining and surviving with hobbies, volunteering, entertaining and vacationing. Ecclesiastes, in its discourse on the meaning of life, tells us there is no better thing than to eat our food and drink our wine with a merry heart, find fulfillment in our work, and accept our lot in life, and that if God blesses a person by appreciating these things, he “seldom reflects on the measure of his years because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart”. To break the rut of the routine that life becomes for most people, and find the answer to what’s it all for and what meaning is there in life, we need to adopt the perspective that everything we have in our life of routine, is a gift from God. Without God nothing satisfies, but with Him we find satisfaction and enjoyment. True pleasure comes only when we acknowledge and revere God and place Him at the center of our life, work and activities. Then everything in our lives will have meaning, and we will find ourselves taking delight even in the smallest things.

The third and most crucial area where people can fall short of living a full life is in the spiritual area. We need to actively seek a full, deep relationship with Jesus Christ. No one likes to think about death, but at some point, every living thing dies. The bodies we have were not made to last for eternity. The Scriptures tell us that when a seed falls to the soil it will die as a seed but then give rise to a complete plant. Similarly, Christ will give us new eternal bodies like He has. Each of us will live for eternity, and where a person’s soul spends it depends on the choices we make throughout our lives. God is the source of everything good in this life, and we want to be with Him for eternity. The highest purpose for which a person was created is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We can have this relationship now, and our lives here can be as meaningful and rich as can be possible in this life. We can have an overall joyfulness regardless of our circumstances, because we can be assured we are living the highest purpose while on earth for which we were created, and will be with Jesus for eternity. To have this we need to take hold of the means God has provided for our salvation. Once we’ve accepted God’s provision for salvation, by receiving Jesus into our lives, we need to read his word, the Bible, fellowship with Him through prayer, and be part of a Church family. Many people find it difficult to get up on a Sunday morning to go to Church, but we can’t grow in our walk with Christ without it. The world is under the influence of satan, and we need the full protection of God so that we don’t fall prey to this influence. The Scriptures tell us “The devil prowls like a lion, looking for someone to devour; therefore, put on the full armor of God.”

As we grow in our relationship with God and Jesus, He then wants us to show the fruits of our faith in our lives. We then need to learn the areas in which He has gifted us and use these to bless others and lead them to Christ. In every interaction with someone we can reflect the nature of Jesus who we serve, and use every opportunity to love believers as well as unbelievers. It’s often difficult to step out of one’s routine and comfort zone to attend a support group meeting, spend part of a holiday in a soup kitchen, or do anything inconvenient when there is an opportunity to do God’s work. But when we do, we bless others and become part of something much bigger than ourselves, displaying God’s glory. We also grow and receive spiritual blessings ourselves and, by contrast, better appreciate our own routines when we return to our comfort zone. In the end, we each want to be able to face Jesus when our lives end or when He comes, knowing we’re living the lives He’s given us fully, to His glory, and are doing His work. We only have so much time to come to this understanding and change our lives before it’s too late.

In the words of Melville we want to be able to say “And his eternal delight shall be, who coming to lay him down can say, oh Father, mortal or immortal, I have striven to be thine more than this world’s or mine own, and here I die, yet this is nothing; I leave eternity to thee; for what is man that he should live out the lifetime of his God.”