How Much Should I Enjoy Life When There Is So Much Death and Suffering?
Life can be awful. But maybe you're in a good season where you're enjoying a lot of blessings. If so, how should you react? Here are a few ideas.
If you're signed up for our TMC Daily Devotional, you know we're going through a series titled "When the Leaves Fall," where we're covering the topic of death. So far, we've already had some wonderful posts from TMC contributors.
Rebecca Adams wrote on "Why We Need to Be Comfortable Talking About Death" and Timothy Vanderpool wrote a powerful piece about building a legacy that's worth remembering.
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But now, back to your regularly scheduled program and this key question:
Should I Enjoy Life When I Know I'm Going to Die?
To some Christians, this feels like a trick question. They know they should find joy in God, but don’t know how much of life they should enjoy. In the back of their minds, they think Christians should always be a bit miserable and view activities like parties as frivolous.
Social media certainly heightens this tension. One second, we're looking at a friend's post of pictures of their trip to Paris, and the next, a malnourished child in a third-world nation. If you're like me, part of you almost feels guilty for enjoying life when there is so much suffering.
While the Bible certainly has much to say about caring for those who are in pain, Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 offers a different perspective. Here, the preacher of Ecclesiastes says:
7 Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. 8 Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head. 9 Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun. 10 Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
This isn’t to say we ignore the reality of death. Quite the contrary. In fact, the preacher in Ecclesiastes spends the first six verses of this chapter making this exact point. We are to acknowledge the sting of death yet also live life to the fullest.
Daniel and Jonathan Akin write: “Contemplate death and take it to heart so you can enjoy life. That is his point. Go to a funeral rather than a party so that you can contemplate your frailty and finitude as a means to live wisely and enjoy life.”[1]
Only as we properly understand death can we enjoy life to the fullest. Deep down, every person is on a quest for personal enjoyment. But this quest should make all of us stop and ask ourselves this question: Is what I am pursuing right now bringing me the greatest source of enjoyment, or is there something better?
God’s greatest desire for our lives is that we find our ultimate enjoyment in him. He is the one our hearts really desire. It is him we are really longing for in the midst of our pursuit of temporary earthly pleasures. Saint Augustine offered this simple and yet profound prayer to God when he said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
A Challenge to Act Like Christ
If you’re struggling to enjoy life, pause and ask yourself if you have the correct view of death. Are you able to look death in the eye, in its ugliest form, and say, “Because of Jesus, you have no hold over me”? This is what Jesus did. Jesus knew what would happen to him, yet he was still able to eat, drink, and celebrate. His joy was properly linked to an eternal perspective.
Hebrews 12:2 says, “For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” This joy was fulfilling the will of his Father in Heaven by dying to redeem mankind. Jesus went through the greatest hardships any human being has had to experience. He took the weight of sin upon his shoulders. Yet he pressed forward because he saw the big picture and the joy that awaited.
Christians who lose sight of the joy of serving God say something about how unfulfilling they find God to be. Serving God is not always easy, but it should always be joyful, for our ultimate joy awaits us. As Benjamin Whichcote rightly notes, “We never better enjoy ourselves than when we most enjoy God.” When we enjoy God fully, we will long to spend time with him and will mourn when we have disappointed him.
If you’re unhappy today and find it impossible to celebrate the good things in life, it’s time to gain Jesus' perspective and see life as he sees it. Being happy and having a great time with friends and family is far from frivolous. When you can look at life’s hardships and dance with your kids, party with your friends, and enjoy life to the fullest, you’re tangibly demonstrating your confidence in God.
You’re saying, “God, I am so certain of your resurrection that I can have joy in the present, knowing my eternal joy awaits.”
[1]Daniel L. Akin and Jonathan Akin, Exalting Jesus in Ecclesiastes, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2016), 104.
