Life Truths

QUESTION: What are the life truths?

ANSWER:

We can often tell how important something is in today's society by looking at how we joke about it. A perfect example is our quest for "life truths."

We humans are constantly seeking life truths in an effort to find meaning. But if we do a quick search of the topic on the Internet, here is an example of what we find:

• You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
• You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
• No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize a cat.

It's not that nobody out there really KNOWS any life truths. It's just that actively considering the question of who we are, why we exist and what happens when we die makes us very, very anxious. So we would rather joke about it.

Besides, many of us think we know what really matters in life - usually whatever it is we don't have. So the poor think they want to be rich, and the unemployed think they need the right job, and those who have jobs think they need to retire early.

The truth is, every one of us is trying to hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.

We go rush to meetings, pay our bills, raise our children, and try to "get ahead" as if we knew where we were going. But sooner or later, we get to our destinations and wonder, "What now?"

There's a pretty good list of life truths in a book I came across recently. It's a really good book, a best-seller in fact. I'm sure you can get it at Amazon, probably on sale. It's called the Bible, and it says we are here to help God build His kingdom on earth.

Here are some of its life truths:

• We are sinners. We don't do what God wants and are disconnected from the glory of His kingdom. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
  
  
• Our sins may only be washed away by Jesus, who died as a sacrifice so that we could return to a right relationship with God. "…But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:11)
  
  
• God has a plan for our lives. "If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work (2 Timothy 2:21).
  
  
• When we repent of our sins and accept Jesus as Savior, God sends to us the Holy Spirit to help us become more like Christ. "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you," Jesus says in John 14:26.

In this way, God transforms each of us into important parts of the Body of Christ. Romans 12:4-6 describes it this way: "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us."

Using the gifts that God has given us, with the Holy Spirit to guide us to the appropriate "life truths" we can do anything - even baptize a cat.