The "Good Life"

One of my favourite "sitcoms" on UK TV in the past (actually, in the 1970s!) was the series entitled "The Good Life". In it, Tom and Barbara (played by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal) were a couple who decided to quit "the rat race", and turned their garden, in their posh London suburb of Surbiton, into a smallholding, in an endeavour to make themselves self-sufficient in food and other items. Their long-suffering, and snobbish (well, Margo was!), next-door neighbours, Jerry and Margo Leadbetter (played by Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith), are variously offended, amused, and even impressed! 

But what really is "the good life"? Surely it is something that most, if not all, of us would wish to live! So how do we attain it? Of what does it consist? Should we all try to become "self-sufficient? How may it be defined?

I suspect that, for many people, "the good life" is based on appearance. They want to look good in front of neighbours, and friends. They want to look physically good - not that there is anything wrong with that, provided it is natural - but some spend a small fortune on beauty products, tanning salons, plastic surgery, fat suction, etc. Yet appearance, whatever we do, changes. As we get older, there is a limit to what anyone can do with silicone, and dye! And, of course, none of these things, or all of them together, can stop death!

Others interpret "the good life" in a hedonistic fashion. It's all about what brings pleasure to me, in the form of activities and life-style. It's having multiple holidays in exotic locations; attending the cinema or theatre; throwing expensive parties; doing what we find enjoyable - including the use of drugs, and of illicit and immoral sexual activity.

Yet another group see "the good life" as the possession of the latest gadgets; a mansion in which to live; a new car every other year (at most!); the latest clothing fashion; having as much money in the bank as they can possibly spend; and, if that is not absolutely true of some, even they see "the good life"as something that can be bought and paid for in one way or another.

Of course, as so many have discovered, none of these things truly satisfy, and there are many who, looking back over their life, have realised that, rather than it having been "good", it has been largely wasted!

God's Word tells us what "the good life" really is. It is living one's life as Almighty God created you to be. It is doing His will, in His way, to His glory. Many are familiar with Paul's words to the Ephesian believers: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - not because of works, lest any man should boast." (2:8-9). This is a wonderful, and glorious, truth. However, many stop there! Paul doesn't. He goes on to say, in the following verse: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (2:10). We are not saved by works, but we are saved for works - and doing those works that the Father has prepared for us, is "the good life".

The Lord Jesus, Himself, speaking of those who are His sheep, said: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10^(b)) or in some translations, "in all its fulness". That is "the good life".

Are you living life in all of its fulness - serving God by serving others in His Name? There's an old song from the 70s that invites you to 

"Put your hand in the hand of the Man Who stilled the water;                              Put your hand in the hand of the Man Who calmed the sea.                            Take a look at yourself, and you will look at others differently,                              by puttin' your hand in the hand of the Man from Galilee."

That Man was, and is, the Lord Jesus - and when we have our hand in His, then we are truly living "the good life"!