We humans, despite being wonderfully endowed with massive brain power and ability to think carefully in a way unmatched by any other creature known to us in the universe, too often act and even think instinctively as though we are just like all the lower animals not having the power of thought we posses.
So, most commonly we answer DL Moody's words instinctively (not thoughtfully) by saying things like, "my children are what is most precious, they are worth dying for so they are worth living for".
There is no doubt that all human life is precious, and it is natural and right to feel strongly about our children. But that is an animalistic response, it is instinctive and emotional, and very powerful. But it does not use our highest faculty - thought.
What if we think about it rather than react instinctively? Then I think rational reasoning would go like this...
D L Moody "If you've got nothing worth dying for then you've got nothing worth living for"
Us "I do have something worth dying for, that is my children, so I do have something worth living for, that is, my children".
D L Moody "What's so great about your children that their lives are of more value than yours? If your child goes on to find the cure for Malaria or cancer, or if your child is going to end wars, or if your child is going to eradicate pornography and human trafficking, yeah, that is a really important and significant life worth dying for. But if your child is going to be mostly selfish, bum around, be a bit of a bully, spend his best time playing X Box, perhaps doing an ordinary job that earns his living, is that really a life worth dying for?
If we say our children are worth dying for and so worth living for, then, rationally speaking, either we place a huge burden upon them to do something great with their lives, or if they live trivial lives, we have wasted and trivialised our own precious lives living for their trivial lives.
As much as I love my wife and four beautiful daughters, I am not persuaded that they are living lives that are particularly better than anyone else's, and neither do I want to shoulder them with a burden of feeling they must achieve greatness. But neither do I want to trivialise my own precious life.
There has got to be a 'reason' for living. A rational purpose that makes life worthwhile. And it has got to be more than just my children. After all, they will probably live for their children, who will live for their children, and so on until humanity and eventually all life dies out. Then what? Then it will be that we all lived for something that came to nothing.
A great man in the Bible reflected on this and wrote ...
"Man who is born of a woman, flowers and then fads away, like a shadow that flees at the sunset, in a lifetime that's just like a day". (Job)
And Shakespeare sums up most of our lives well,
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"
In other words, ultimately, life is absurd and meaningless. There's surely more to life than this!
In my next blog I will explain how Jesus rationally, emotionally, mentally and spiritually can give ultimate meaning to all our lives.
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