Love, Life, and Good Days

May 28

Most of us, despite any protestation to the contrary would have to concede if we were being totally honest, that we are glad we’re alive. That is not to say we wouldn’t like to change some things about life if we had the ability to do so. Those who are getting along in years may wish to turn back a few pages of the calendar.

People who haven’t much money might desire additional income and a more profitable stock portfolio, forgetting the words of J.D. Rockefeller, who was the world’s richest man when he said in response to the question, “How much money is enough?”…”Just a little bit more.” But neither a little more money nor an extended youth can make us happy.

Neither can anything else the world has to offer—not wealth, not power, not romantic prowess—nothing temporal has the capacity to establish us in what we truly desire to possess. What we want is joy—the ability to be happy and content no matter what the world might bring our way. We know we will experience storms in life, for everyone does. We know we’ll be no exception. We want the strength to navigate through them successfully and with our joy intact.

The Bible gives an unlikely word of insight into how we can achieve that end. In I Peter 3:10 the impetuous Apostle says, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceit.” That’s rather straight-forward advice. He’s telling us that if we mind our tongue, if we don’t speak evil and are not duplicitous in our dealings with others we will have the love and life and good days for which we so yearn.