A Life Worth Living // From Vanity to Victory, Part 1

<p>Have you ever noticed how just living life, drains the life out of you? A bit of a paradox, but you know what I mean. We all want to live a life that’s worth living, but how can we do that, with all the <em>“stuff”</em> we have going on?</p> <p> </p> <h3><span style="color: #ff9900;"><strong>The Vanity of Life</strong></span></h3> <p>My hunch is that we all want to have a life that’s worth living. I mean, you don’t have to think too much about all that do you? If we weigh up our lives, each one of us, there are things that are worthwhile and enjoyable and then there are things that we would rather not have there but I guess we can live with and then there are things that are downright awful that we just wish would go away forever. And depending on the mix between those three – the good, the mediocre and the bad – we either feel as though our lives are worth living or they’re not.</p> <p>The problem is – and this is a universal problem; it’s a problem that each one of us faces – as time goes by, the mix, the balance between the good, the mediocre and the bad changes; our circumstances change, our emotions change, our health goes up and down. And sooner or later, the old body will give out. And so if we live our lives based on our circumstances; if we judge the value of our life based on what is going on and how we are reacting to it, well, we are pretty much at the mercy of the elements.</p> <p>And so if I were to ask you right at this moment, do you have a life that’s worth living, what would your answer be? And not only that, what are you basing that answer on – how you feel, what’s going on in your life, or something else?</p> <p>That’s what we are going to be tackling the next few weeks on the programme – the value of the life that you are living – but in quite an unusual way. I say unusual because we are going to go to what I think frankly, is simply one of the most extraordinary Books of the Bible. It’s the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes. It was written by King Solomon, we believe – one of the wisest