AHHHH, the Good Life! You need it, you want
it. You deserve it! Isn’t that what the Madison Avenue marketing executives
promote and coerce you into believing? And if you can’t have it, at least you
can live vicariously through some celebrity, some beautiful person. How often
do you read People Magazine, or watch
Entertainment Tonight, hanging on
every word, every move, every detail of a celebrity’s life? How often do you
try to copy their look, what they wear, what they’re doing, how they’re living,
what they’re talking about?
The definition of the good life has
been changing, especially with the Millennial generation. No longer is the
single most important goal of home ownership craved by these young adults.
Instead, they value immersion travel, seeing the world, not being tied down,
and waiting longer to settle down, get married, and have children.
(Unfortunately, a huge percentage of them play house by co-habiting together—an
arrangement that gets the guy all of the perks of having a wife, and the woman
most of the burden and selling of self. More unfortunately, they got that
foolish idea of pretending without committing from my generation, which watched
the 60’s anti-establishment crowd initiate and flaunt it.) But I digress…
Last week I presented the overall
basics of the good life and what it looks like—growing in love for one another,
aspiring to lead a quiet life, minding our own business, and working with our
own hands, instead of expecting others—and that includes the government—to
provide for us.
This week I’d like to do add to
these basics, like a subcategory of specifics. In the fifth chapter of 1
Thessalonians, Saint Paul gives an extensive list of what actions will help
garner you the Good Life. Before he runs through the list, he tells us in verse
8 to be sober, which simply means to
take life seriously enough to not be foolish about it. Sober can be defined as
sensible, thoughtful, levelheaded, businesslike, down-to-earth, pragmatic,
conservative. That’s a place to start. Being more thoughtful, and less reactive
about life and the way we live it.
And Paul focuses on that with the
backdrop of looking ahead to the Lord’s return, which we covered in December
for Advent. We continue it here because it’s a permanent backdrop; it’s always relevant to us. One day the Lord
will return, and Paul wants us to be ready by living soberly, looking forward
to that day, living with it in mind. He also wants us to focus on faith and love under the head knowledge of hope while we’re waiting, living, and expecting. (Ah, does that not
remind you of the Love passage in 1 Corinthians, chapter 13; the three things
that abide the most?) As The Message
puts it:
“We live under wide open skies and
know where we stand. So let’s not
sleepwalk through life like those
others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be
smart. People sleep at night and get
drunk at night. But not us! Since
we’re creatures of the Day, let’s
act like it. Walk out into the daylight
sober, dressed up in faith, love,
and the hope of salvation.”
I love that! “Dressed up in faith,
love, and the hope of salvation.” We should wear it, people should see it on
us, hear it in our speech, read it on our faces, know it from our shared
opinions and actions. We should stand out in the crowd.
My creative mind wanders to
wondering what kind of material that clothing would look like if you could sew
up a suit or dress patterned by those virtues. And I don’t mean clothing with
the words LOVE, HOPE, PEACE stenciled in four-inch letters on them! It wouldn’t
be gray and colorless; I think it would burst with limitless color wheel
vibrancy, intensity, and beauty. How could love, faith, and hope be anything
but colorful and attractive!? Unfortunately, I think we envision sober as being
gloomy and negative rather than positive and often focus on the somber more
than the colorful. Maybe it makes us feel
more righteous and holy to think that way. Or maybe we just imagine we are. And
then we look colorless, boring, and somber to the world.
As we move over to verse 11 and then
into Chapter 12, we find that long list Paul cites. They’re called “exhortations”
in my Bible, but I think you could call it a recipe, with crucial ingredients
for this Good Life we’re seeking.
First, he tells us to comfort each
other and edify one another. That advice tells me a couple of things:
1) Life hasn’t changed much. These
Thessalonians were suffering then just like we suffer now—antagonism directed
at us because of our faith, relationship heartbreaks, job losses, ill health,
death.
2) We need to spend less time
focused on ourselves and more time easing others’ stress and grief, and
teaching them the faith, the positive ways of life. This is a time when it’s
okay to mind someone else’s business, as long as they’ve given you permission
to do so.
Then comes the list:
1. Recognize and
esteem very highly in love the ones
who are in spiritual authority over us.
2. Be at peace
among ourselves.
3. Give warnings
to those who are unruly in their behavior.
4. Comfort the
fainthearted.
5. Uphold the
weak.
6. Be patient
with all. (And he does mean all!)
7. Make sure no
one pays back evil for evil to anyone.
8. Instead,
always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. (And he does mean always.)
9. Always be rejoicing.
10. Give thanks
in everything, (and he does mean everything), because that’s God’s
will.
11. Do not
quench the [Holy] Spirit.
12. Do not
despise prophecies.
13. Test all
things.
14. Hang on
tightly to what is good.
15. Stay away
from every form of evil.
It’s a long list. On the surface,
it’s looks pretty straightforward. And some of it looks easy. A lot of it
isn’t. How do we rightly divide all of it and live it out, successfully?
That’s what we’ll start looking at
next week, when we dig a little deeper and unearth the “how to’s” of living
this Good Life. Next week we’ll cover the first seven, and then we’ll wrap up
the rest the following Monday. For now, look the list over carefully and make
mental or journal notes about how you’re doing, or think you are. Make notes
about which ones you struggle with, which ones make you wrinkle your nose. The
ones that confuse you. And join me back here next week!
When we’ll get more serious about
living the Good Life!
Blessings,
Andrea
May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your
soul prospers (3 John 2).
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