Life is Good

You've probably seen these t-shirts or bumper stickers featuring a caricature of a guy lounging at the beach or sitting around the campfire with the motto "Life is Good" written playfully underneath.


I like these t-shirts. And I agree with the sentiment it personifies. Life is good. But it is not the circumstances of my life that lead me to this conclusion. It is the knowledge that life is good because God is good.









Life is good when we're enjoying a cold ice cream cone on a warm summer afternoon.











But is life still good when we suddenly lose that delicious moment?













Life is good when we're out enjoying fun on two wheels.













But is life still good when one of our toys gets broken?







Life is good when you have the company of Man's Best Friend.
















But is life still good when Fido rolls over but isn't playing dead?











Life is good when we're heading to the beach for a weekend trip.









But is life still good when that trip takes us in a different direction?








Life is good when we're running the race strong.









But is life still good when it trips us up or knocks us down?











Life is good when we're sitting by the fire with a friend.





But is life still good when we're going through the fire alone?










Life is good when we're blazing the trail with family and friends.










But is life still good when one of them walks away from us?

As parents, life is often overwhelming. We face the stresses of family, marriage, finances, and work life. Our kids get sick at the absolute worst times (like when we have an important meeting to attend that morning). We come home exhausted from a tough day at work only to have to hurry back out for the kids' soccer game across town. We run to the grocery store to pick up the things we need for dinner and are completely embarrassed by our screaming and crying kids who suddenly melt down at the checkout counter.

On the best of days and the worst of days, God's Word reminds us:

"On a good day, enjoy yourself,
On a bad day, examine your conscience.
God arranges for both kinds of days,
so that we won't take anything for granted."
---Ecclesiastes 7:14


Now, where can I get that Life is Good tee showing a mom awake with the crying baby at 3am...

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us

“With the lights out it’s less dangerous,
Here we are now, entertain us,
I feel stupid and contagious,
Here we are now, entertain us.”
--- Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana, 1991)

I remember well when this song was first released in 1991. I was a senior in high school and this song quickly became the anthem of my graduating class. But more than that, I look back over the past fifteen years and I realize, with great sadness, that it has become the theme song for my generation and those coming behind.

Here we are now, entertain us.

We see and hear and experience this expectation in almost every context of life today. There is a premium placed upon “fun” and the responsibility for ensuring a “good time” falls squarely upon the shoulders of everyone but the individual.

Let’s look at a few examples within the context of a typical teen’s reality.

At school, we hear statements like “My math teacher is so boring.” The assumption, of course, is that the most important attribute of an educator is that they are fun. Their qualifications of experience, content mastery, and methodologies are rendered meaningless if they are unable to entertain the student. The ultimate goal of most students attending school is to have fun and to grow their social networks. The primary purpose of education is to promote learning. Sometimes the two can work hand-in-hand, but often times they are diametrically opposed. Learning is work and work is not always fun.

This type of immature logic is repeated in the context of family life (“I hate doing chores – they’re no fun”), employment (“I need a new job – this one is so boring!”), and church (“I hope church isn’t dull today or I’m going to fall asleep!”). Again, the supposition is that these things exist only to entertain, and that the individual bears no responsibility for what he gains from the experience. That task gets relegated to the parent, pastor, employer, and teacher.

We want a fun process to lead us to a fruitful reward. But the biblical model says that a fruitful process will lead to a fun reward. Psalms 128:2 reminds us that “when you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it will be well with you.” The fun that we should seek is not in the process of what we do, but in the joy we find in the reward of our efforts.

The human tendency is to only do the things that we enjoy. We like the things that we value and we value the things that we like. But our dislike of something does not, and should not, diminish its value or importance.

Immaturity says, “I don’t like _____ so I’m not going to _____.”

I may say "I don’t like broccoli so I’m not going to eat it," but that does not diminish the nutritional value I would receive from a regular diet that includes broccoli.

Yet, we hear this statement frequently from children today. I don’t like my parents’ decision so I’m not going to obey. I don’t like writing essays so I’m not going to do my homework. I don’t like the school’s dress code, so I’m not going to tuck my shirt in unless I get caught. I don’t like reading the Bible so I’m not going to do it very often.

Statements like these, whether directly stated or just implied by our actions, demonstrate that we are driven by our desires for fun.

Are we raising our children to be governed by their feelings or by their faith?

Studies show that the average 21-year-old has watched 20,000 hours of television, played 10,000 hours of video games, and sent 250,000 e-mails and instant messages. While today’s generation of American youth are busy chasing the next thrill ride, there is another population halfway around the world that is working hard now to ensure a prosperous (and fun) life later. (For more on this topic, read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat.)

I like having fun as much as the next person, but that can’t be the end-all goal.

We must teach our children to be mature enough to recognize that the greatest things in life will never be achieved chasing a good time. If they limit their pursuits and their efforts to the things that are fun, easy, and pleasant, they are guaranteed to live a life devoid of value, purpose, and significance.

Talk about boring.