WHY WE LIVE

When I think about the classic routine of life that goes something like, wake up, go to work, come home, go to bed, at the weekend go to church, socialise in between when possible, and do it all again...living like this is easy to do and is the norm for most Christians and it’s a good life, but occasionally the question must be asked, “there must be more to life than this, right?”

It’s from thoughts like these that the song “Why We Live” was born. When my mind gets in places like this, I find myself thinking in Ecclesiastes mode...meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless! It’s a hard read, but the truth is a lot of the things people fight over today and strive for tend to be pretty meaningless; take the time to watch a few episodes of MTV Cribs, and you’ll see that a lot of people build their lives around the fancy cars, expensive jewellery, and other temporary things they’ve acquired. In Ecclesiastes mode I’m forced to think, in the eternal scheme of things, who really cares about these things? What importance or significance do they carry? Is this what life is all about? I’m not knocking the idea of having nice things, there’s nothing wrong with having things that we enjoy, but if that’s all our existence is about, then we’re in trouble.

A few years ago, our Pastor Paul Scanlon preached a message called, “without a complaint, your vision will perish”. The fact is, the things you change in life are the things in society which you don’t like and want to see improve; so Martin Luther King had a complaint about racial discrimination, so he fought for equality. Oskar Schindler had a complaint about genocide, so he fought to save innocent lives. I suppose you could say Jesus had a complaint about the lost, the lonely and the sick being pushed out of society, and about people getting stuck in religion and drifting away from God.

I’m glad to say that I’ve found myself a complaint! I have the privilege of working with young people, often who are from under privileged backgrounds or are labelled as “hard to reach”. The truth is I don’t think any young person is too far gone or impossible to reach, deep down every young person has a heart, emotions, and desires to live a better life, even if they don’t see how it can be possible. My complaint is that young people grow up without being told they can be all that they want to be, that nothing is impossible if they have a dream and a plan, and if their peers/parents/role models have all been negative, then they don’t need to follow the same path. Therefore, I can truly say that in the work I do, I’m the voice that says you can do and achieve anything you set your mind to, all things are possible. As Christians we need to find a complaint, something that bothers us...and bothers the heart of God.

The truth is we can’t do everything... we’ve all seen the footage on TV of children dying in third world countries and felt sad about it, feeling that we can’t really do anything to help. We’ve all seen homeless people in our city centres and given them some loose change, knowing they really need a warm bed for the night. We can’t all fly to places like Bob Geldof, or adopt children like Madonna or Angelina Jolie. We can’t do everything, but we can all do ‘something’ to change the world around us... ‘something’ could be helping out at the local community centre; ‘something’ could be inviting a neighbour to church, ‘something’ could be adopting a child through ‘Compassion’. So whether you jet to the other side of the world or take a walk to the other side of the street, ‘something’ is possible!

I believe that we live to be like Jesus. He preached the good news but He also displayed it in His actions. Quite simply He was kind to people, having dinner with those who were often ignored, taking time to talk to those shunned by society, befriending any who were in need of a friend. Jesus won people over with acts of kindness. It’s sad to say but random acts of kindness are a rarity and surprising in today’s modern world; try offering to pay for someone’s coffee at Starbucks while they scramble for loose change at the till, their face will display all the confusion and raised eyebrows to prove the point! When I think back to what made me want to become a Christian as a young man, it wasn’t necessarily a preached message, it was a case of what the lives and actions of the Christians around me preached; the people that offered to pick me up and take me to a youth club, those that took me out for MacDonald’s, those that looked out for me when I needed support, and those who listened to me and showed an interest in my world without any hidden agenda. That was all the Jesus I needed to see to know that I wanted Him to be at the centre of my life.

So that’s the heart behind the song “Why We Live”; become passionate about the things God is passionate about; find the things in this world He dislikes and set about changing them for the better. We should all be making the change, starting with ourselves in whatever circle of influence we have; some of us will have influence over millions, some of us will have influence over a few, regardless of how big that number might be, lets stand for God and be the change that our world so desperately needs.

Marcus