Are You Living Your Best Life?

 

Social media is replete with seemingly unending selfies of people holding up a drink on a white sand beach loaded with statuesque palm trees with the backdrop of a brilliant blue ocean with foamy waves breaking at the edge, or friends in the foreground of a mountaintop vista view with crystal clear lakes surrounded by towering pines far below them, or a family enjoying incredible ancient architecture perfectly preserved in quaint European cities.  The comments section on those posts are full of positive thoughts as friends enjoy the captured moment vicariously, and it seems as if there is always one friend or family member who says, "You're living your best life!"  

We'll read about or hear people sharing with us:

“Just got a promotion at work! I’m definitely living my best life.”

“Spent the day at the beach with friends. Living my best life!”

“Finally booked that dream vacation. Can’t wait to start living my best life.”

“Started a new hobby and it’s bringing me so much joy. Living my best life!”

“Decided to take a break from social media and focus on self-care. Living my best life offline.”

"I just retired and I'm enjoying a life of leisure. Living my best life!"

I mean, who doesn't want to live their best life?  Many of us spend money on books, webinars, web articles, and conferences to learn from others who appear to be living their best life so that we, too, can enjoy living *our* best life.  Those who we look to have made a ton of money, have become famous, have their own jets, travel to amazing destinations, live in huge houses, have amazing stuff, and eat at Michelin star restaurants. They've been promoted, they've been to the finest beaches, they have had many dream vacations, they have fun and exciting hobbies, someone else handles their social media because the don't have time, and maybe they retired at age 45.  We tend to look up to men and women like that in our own personal quest for living our best life.

Picture this:  You get a text from a friend who tells you there is a seminar coming up that is going to feature a panel of individuals and the topic of the seminar is "Living Your Best Life".  Your friend assures you that this seminar has been life changing for many, many people.  You're excited about the prospects and agree to go.  The day comes and you meet your friend at the venue.  The stage is set in the massive arena, with thousands like you who have the same quest.  A line of stools are on the stage, each with a microphone for the individual speakers.  The stage lights are bright, the jumbo screens on either side are lit so those in the nosebleed seats can better see the speakers.  The time draws near, the lights dim, and the featured guests begin to file on the stage. You're excited, you are ready to take notes, you're thrilled that you're about ready to learn from the best of the best about how to attain your goal of the best life.

There is a nearly audible collective gasp from the entire room as a homeless man, a prostitute, an IRS agent, a disfigured and crippled terminally ill woman, a drug addict, a convicted felon, a young woman with downs syndrome, a couple who have been stuck in poverty for years, and a struggling immigrant file in and take their places in front of the microphones.

Definitely NOT what you  expected. THEY are living their best life?  What?? 

When Jesus sat down on the mountaintop and began to speak, there could have been that same anticipation.  People were being told that this could be the long awaited messiah, the one who would save Israel.  What was life in his kingdom going to be like?  The first word he said was 'blessed'.  Probably not the best English word to convey the meaning of the word.  I like the phrase, "the good life".  Maybe today we'd say 'the best life'.  The folks would have moved to the edge of their seats in anticipation of the recipients of that life in his kingdom.  The religious leaders who were used to fame, money, and notoriety would have expected to be named.  The Roman sympathizers who believed the best way forward was cooperation with that dominant world power under whose thumbs they were trying to exist.  Perhaps they expected their names to be called out.  Maybe it was the biggest farmer or vineyard operator in the region.  Perhaps the landowner who was scooping up as much land from those who were having to sell off due to the Roman oppression was awaiting to be named.

There could have been a collective gasp as Jesus named who the good life was for:  the poor in spirit, those who grieve loss, the meek, those seeking right relationships but are failing, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted.  Wow!  NOT what they expected I'm sure.  Not what we expect either.  That list seems to be the exact opposite of those who are living their best life!

Unfortunately when the word 'blessed' is used, it appears to mean that the way to get God's blessing of safety, security, and abundance is to become those individuals. That's why I like the translation, "the good life is for".   Jesus audience was full of people who were raised with the Hebrew bible (old testament) and knew there were two words for blessed.  One was what God does when he gives safety, security, and abundance to people, and the other word was a word which identified those who had been blessed by God, "THAT person is blessed".  The word Jesus used was not pronouncing God's blessing.  He's identifying those who are receiving God's blessing.  The blessing is the latter part of each person identified, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven", etc..  

Jesus identifies what it means to live your best life.  It's living a life that is flourishing, a life that is safe, where there is security, where there is abundance.  Kind of like what life was like in Eden.  Total, complete, and daily dependence upon God in the midst of his constant blessing.  Truly paradise and the life of abundance.  We could look at the first couple and comment on their Instagram selfies in Eden and say, "YOU are really living your best life!".  They gave up the best life when they were tricked into thinking they could live their best life on their own, define what is good and bad on their own, and thought that God was really keeping them from living their best life.  

As a result they were cut off from paradise.  De-creation, degradation of everything including their bodies began to take place leading to cells which attack one another, people who attack one another, chaos and all that we know in this life which has been largely on a downward spiral. Thinking they could create their best life to live was a major fail. Just look around you.

 The promise of God from the very beginning was that he would restore that life that was given up, he would restore Eden.  He would usher in a king and kingdom which would be the center of God's blessings once again of safety, security, abundance and human flourishing for those who wanted it.  It would be a place where once again humanity could live their best life.

When Jesus sat on that mountain, he was the king initiating that kingdom and was identifying who it was for.   It was for those who knew they needed and daily lived out dependence upon him for living their best life.  Think about it.  Who is in the best position to know and experience daily their need for God to provide their daily meal? The homeless.  The prostitute is aware daily how much she needs to know she has value beyond merely being a piece of meat.  The prisoner knows the daily need for physical protection.  The tax guy knows daily the need to be loved and accepted because he's despised.  The drug addict is constantly aware of the need for deliverance because he's trapped.

Those who are not a part of those groups are not as aware moment by moment of that they, we, actually have the same needs.  Because I'm not "those people" who are looked down upon, it's too easy to think of myself as superior, that I can live my best life on my own.  Maybe we've been looking to the wrong people to show us the way to living our best life, or not defining it correctly. It seems to be that the broken, the powerless, the grieving, the unimportant, those who would be seen as being at the bottom of society are more aware of their need for someone other than themselves to depend on for living their best life. Jesus audience was full of people who were just like that.  They had suffered under Roman oppression, they didn't receive adequate healthcare, they were extremely overtaxed, they had lost their family farms, many had to become slaves, and there was a lot of murmuring and quiet discussion among many about how to overthrow that Roman oppression. Jesus saw people around him who were struggling because humanity has thought they could live their best life on their own terms and their own goals, and had failed miserably for many generations.

I don't think Jesus is saying to strive to be homeless, a prostitute, or an alcoholic. What I do think he's saying is, be as aware as they are of their moment by moment need for God and the blessings he offers.   I believe he was saying have that mindset.  I also think he was saying that just because you find yourself homeless, sick, imprisoned, persecuted, powerless, without a voice in society, like you could never be forgiven, you're not as far away from living your best life as you think.  You may actually be closer!

When I was diagnosed with cancer, some of the thoughts that danced through my head was, "What did I do wrong?  Am I being punished for something? Why is this happening?".  I know God doesn't give people cancer. It was OUR actions that caused cells to begin attacking one another.  Job didn't sin against God and got what looks like cancer (and lost everything and everyone else around him).  One of the best things I learned during that time was, "Sometimes God permits what he could prevent."  He's more interested in me becoming a better person than he is me being physically healthy.  I started asking myself what he was wanting to accomplish IN me through this awful circumstance.  I started understanding the value of suffering, and what you can learn through pain.  I started to understand what it was like for Abraham when God said, "Go to the place I'm going to show you".  God didn't tell him the destination, he just told him to start walking and he'd tell him where to go as Abraham trusted him for those directions. I had no idea where that cancer would take me.  My job was to trust him every day, to depend upon him every day, to walk me through moments of excruciating pain moment by moment.  I can look back at it now and say, I'm so grateful to have had that experience because I learned things I could have never known before and grew closer to God than I believe I would have without it.  There were lessons that only cancer could teach me. I had cancer and was living my best life.  I had real peace, real joy, real security.

Go back to the beginning.  While there are some things we can learn from those we typically look to for tips on attaining our best life, and the experiences, vacations, hobbies, purchases aren't in and of themselves bad, the question we have to ask ourselves is, what is going to draw me toward a moment by moment dependence upon the love, acceptance, forgiveness, healing and blessing of someone who can actually help me live my best life.  Those who appear to be living their best life are some of the most miserable people on the planet, while those who we think are not living their best life are some of the happiest and most content. So who is living their best life?

It seems like perhaps our best life isn't about the externals, but more our reaction to them.  Maybe the things we think are our best life could actually be drawing us away from actually living our best life.  Do you have what you have in your life, your health, food, clothing, shelter, safety, security, and abundance because YOU did it, or is it a by-product of what God has given you?  Are you still trying, like the first couple, to build your own kingdom, or are you going to be a part of His?  My kingdom won't last.  No matter how much fame, power, wealth, stuff, vacations, jets, cool hobbies, and mansions I get, it's not going to last.  His, though, goes on and on and on.  

Though it's difficult now, Jesus also said that the day would come and what we know will come to an end with all of the chaos and death.  He will make it all right and his kingdom will be fully established.  Right now, we get some hints and tastes of what it means to live our best life. And in the midst of the mess we made, those moments can be pretty wonderful.  But wait, the best is yet to come.  That's when we'll attain in perpetuity what we've been looking for our whole lives.  And when I see you, I'll say with a smile and laugh, "You're really living your best life!!!!"

Join me in Jesus' kingdom and get a taste of living your best life!   FG