(What is life?)

We are born and we are thrust into the arms of a world that can only say three things, "money, power, pleasure." We accept all three and gratefully so, but...is it right? Of course it's right! Our parents and those we love, our friends, enemies, the ones we'd die for and the ones who'd die for us, everyone says so. Be a good kid. Ask me any question,...oh, but not that one. We don't question that. We do what the pastor says, dear. Don't talk about that, it only makes me think. Go to school. Go to church. Make good grades so you can go to college. Go to college so that you can make money, power, or pleasure Your Very Own. Make what you can for yourself, and then.....and then....die; because that is all that you can hope for in life. The American Dream, there is no other!!! Satisfy yourself and then die. Leave this earth and go straight to heaven or go straight to hell. I don't care. Certainly no one else does. It's your choice. Make life the best for you and then leave!!! That's the way things are and that's the way things will always be. Live without morality. Eat, drink and be merry. because, well, you know the rest. This life is only a burst of consciousness (whatever that is) and then we go to who knows where, or we don't. Don't you see? This is life in its fullest sense. The end. The ultimate. It's what we live for. Let me spell it out for you. We live to die; everything in between is for us, in us, by us, and to our own glory. That...is joy...

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My friends, I cannot even pull up out of my heart the description of sadness that this thought gives me. It physically hurts me and pains my soul to think that we live like this. And make no mistake, we do live like this. We have bought into the philosophy of this world and it penetrates our thoughts and actions down to our very core. The soul is rotted.

We need to reevaluate our position. What should we strive for as believers in Christ? What really matters in life? Is it money, power or pleasure? Or...is it striving, through the grace of God, to make Christ known to people? What is our purpose? What is our life?

I believe that Christ has made us for more than we think. If we limit and stifle our knowledge for the Lord, we will never even begin to understand His perfect purpose. Because, truly, our goal is not to live for ourselves. It is to live for God and for his renown among everybody. Only then, when we are fulfilling our purpose and goal, do we have satisfaction and peace in Christ. Only then do we understand the fullness, the depth, and the mercy of His sovereign grace.

We live to serve the one and only God, To magnify and glorify Him above all, And in His exaltation we know joy.