Finding the Good Life

The concept of the Good Life permeates our culture.  Wikipedia defines “the good life” as an ambiguous term referring to the life that one would like to live.  In order to find the Good Life we must know what it is we are looking for ... Today when you want to find something you go on-line and do a search.  My search for the The Good Life resulted in over 4 billion results.  One of those results sent me to a book written by rapper Trip Lee called The Good Life.  I was intrigued by this young man's answers to questions about the Good Life in a recent interview:

When people think of "the good life" they often think of living in luxury, what is your definition of the good life?  Lee: I think if you were to ask me when I was much younger what my definition of the good life was, I think it would have sounded a lot like what most people would say – a life with all the things you want and everything you think you need to make you happy, and these sorts of things. But the way I've tried to redefine the good life in my book is, instead of it being all about what you have or all about the things you achieve, I think the good life is living by faith in a good God. And what I mean by that is, instead of living by faith in whatever lies we've been told about what the good life is, instead of that we believe God. And when we follow God, then He's going to lead us to the good life. 

 

I know that I don't know much about the world of hip-hop and rap.  I also know that the Apostle Paul wasn't familiar with it either, but I do know that Trip is onto something that both Paul and I have come to know as truth:  

              So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 

              Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.                                                                                      Galatians 3:24-26 NIV  

We are running a race.  We are competing for a prize, but we will struggle to find the Good life as long as we seek to find that which is defined by the rules of others. Paul is trying to help us understand that the race we are running is not governed by the same rules that others are competing by.  The problem we have is that we often choose to still live under the old rules. 

We continue to compete believing that we must do that –  we must achieve this – we must have this – all in an effort to find the good life. Therefore, we live so much of our lives, as Christians, with guilt and judgment and yet we are victorious and free!  

We are Free to live the Good life.  Not the good life as determined by others.  Not the good life described and dictated by the “rules” of this world.  Until we learn to change our focus and free ourselves from the “rules” of this world, until we live our lives free of others expectations – We will never discover the Good Life for ourselves.

The Good Life is not to be determined by someone else – let alone this world. The Good Life is found when we choose to view life not through our own eyes but through the eyes of God. In order to find the Good Life, we need a change of perspective. Because finding the good life can be as easy as discovering the truth: Jesus said, “I am the truth and the life.” 

In our attempts to find the good life, your perspective on truth will ultimately determine if you ever able to find the good life you are looking to find.