Quality of Life: Part 1

My twenties are officially over.  A decade of so much yet so little.  There were many defining moments; experiences have fossilized and become my character, become Aaron Salvatore.  Now I enter a new decade, finally somewhat secure about who I am and ready to apply that “i am” to the world around me.  Guess I can start calling myself an adult.

Accordingly, I’m already having thoughts like one.  Such as, “In the years to come, what kind of quality of life will I choose for myself?”  I was actually thinking this yesterday, the day before 30, but it seems to be a great transition from an oar-less raft in the open sea, to some more thoughtful navigation. 

What I decided was that I don’t want the same quality of life that people around me have; I want the quality of life that is in the Bible.  There is a vast disparity between the two.  I don’t casually assume I will attain this in my 30′s, 40′s, maybe not in this lifetime, but it is in the realm of possibility, worthy of pursuit.

Quality of life.   Mostly, we have been taught that this means a peaceful life…minus stuff like…heartache, suffering, disappointment, failure, desperation, mourning, suffering, persecution, neglect, demotion, suffering,  or…suffering.   I mean, no one wants a life with things like… labor, imprisonments, countless beatings, near death experiences, whippings, beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, toil, hardship, sleepness nights, hunger, thirst, cold, exposure, anxiety or weakness (2 cor. 11).

Yuck.  Change the channel quick, something more uplifting.  A happy sitcom with an average family, or a talk-show with a motivating story of rags to riches.  Or even better – Christian television.  Tell me preacher, how did that Jabez get all his blessings; or Solomon his wealth; or Jesus His influence?  How do I have an “abundant life”?

It must be good, cause Jesus offers it to us.  Maybe this is the same idea of that “quality of life” I am searching for.  He says, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10).  This sounds acceptable, this sounds like a good comfortable life, maybe early retirement.  But, then Paul also uses that word, “abundant.”  He says, “For we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 cor. 1:5).  Comfortably suffering, in abundance?  Isn’t that a contradiction?

Ummm, yes.  The Bible seems to be full of them.  For instance, the Gospel is called “The Good News.”  But everyone who receives it goes through the worst circumstances and their life usually ends prematurely.?  Or Israel, “The Chosen People,” the “Apple of His Eye,”  sure does seem to be the most oppressed nation in all of human history.?  Does the Lord offer us the supreme “quality of life” that can be lived, but stick us into a sadistic obstacle course, with a blindfold?  Does the Father offer us a fish but give us a stone?  Or, does the quality of life He offers, the one seen in the Bible,  lie hidden somewhere in the lives of those suffering saints?

I’m tired, and I’m 30, and I have to wake up early for Easter.  Tomorrow I will look to the Resurrection of Jesus, the Man who was the happiest man to ever walk the earth, for Part 2.

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