The Good Life
I want to live the good life, or at
least a good life. More specifically, I
just want the good things in life, to
have them and experience them. Who
doesn’t? I think that if given a choice,
everyone will not pick something that
they consider to themselves bad. Even if
what they choose is bad, if they are
doing it, it has to be perceived by them
that that it is good for them, even if
they admit that it is “bad.” So I took
it upon myself to evaluate some of these
good things in life. What is it that
makes life good, or gives you
those good moments in life.
So in thinking about all that is good in
life the first place that I landed is at
Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Now, all you
healthy people do not judge me. I will
get to the goodness of sports later.
Anyways, the Krispy Kreme doughnut for
some, is all that is right with food. In
fact, it is all that is right with
America. It in and of itself is why I
love and hate this country equally at
the same time. And I’m not talking about
just any doughnut at Krispy Kreme.
Forget the cream filled or the chocolate
iced ones. I’m talking the warm, fresh
out off the conveyor belt, dare I say
moist… doughnut. It’s temperature is
combined with the perfect amount of
icing. And they do not come by
themselves either. They come in pairs,
and if you are real lucky, they come in
12’s. They make their way into a nice
spacious box that elicits the perfect
amount of warmth on the way home in your
lap. We haven’t even gotten to the taste
yet. Oh the taste… You take the first
bite and you get the immediate feeling
to powder your face with its sweet
goodness. It just melts in your mouth.
Before you know it your eyes are closed
and you are then inviting another into
your mouth because they are just that
good. They are smooth, man are they
smooth. If you are not careful a half
dozen can make their way to what seems
to be the bottomless pit that is your
stomach. You sigh and think to yourself,
“I hope heaven is this good.” A roommate
may ask you for one and you, if you did
not know before, you now know what
jealousy is, how dare they ask for your
Krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme has become
all that is good.
But…
These little Turkish delights have their
consequences. By the way, you are
awesome if you just got the reference to
Turkish delights, and no that does not
mean doughnuts are from turkey… I still
refuse to look up the nutritional value
of these things. Once you get to the end
of it, however many you eat, because you
can’t just stop at one, you are more
than full. They contribute to a big gut,
thunder thighs, and a big ole
badonkadonk. Your hands are sticky,
and sometimes the napkin you wipe your
hand with sticks to the tips of your
fingers. You are too lazy to take the
box out because of what is settling in
your stomach so the box collects dust
beside the trashcan in your house. Only
later to remind you that Krispy Kreme is
an option. By that time you forget all
the consequences that come with eating
them. Finally, they end, they run out,
they expire, they do not last. At the
end of the day you are left with an
empty box or bag, and a gluttonous
filled stomach. Let us not mention where
full stomachs empty themselves. They
promise to be that appetizing, and they
leave you completely empty and longing.
They pose as little angels of light only
to leave you wanting. They end in high
blood pressure, cholesterol, heart
attack and death. Not always the
perspective we have when we are thinking
about the wonderful promises that Krispy
Kreme doughnuts will give us as we watch
them come off the conveyor belt. Their
goodness runs out. Now I am not saying
that we should not ever eat them. I am
probably saying less is more. But this
is an illustration of how one situation
plays itself independent of anything
else.
In the right time, doughnuts have their
purpose, and there is some element of
them that is good, I think. But they
were created as a means, not an end.
Good is not sustained in them. We could
go to any other area of life and break
it down and show how it can leave us
wanting. Exercise can leave us
unsatisfied, frustrated, or vain.
Friends are good right? People to
experience laughter with. People to lean
on. Someone that at the end of the day,
you know you they have your back. But
friends have let us down, intentionally
or unintentionally. They, at some point
will frustrate and fail to meet your
expectation. What about family? The idea
of family and what it represents is good,
right? We all know that there is
something in our family that is not
perfect. We all know families that are
broken or split. And even if they are
not, the tension that exists leaves the
environment hostile and undesirable. Not
always, but it happens. While a father
and a mother is supposed to be loving,
comforting and safe, yet there have been
fathers who have abandoned families,
mothers who have hated their children.
What about love? Everyone believes in
love. Sometimes in its pursuit, you are
hurt. Some fall in and then out of it.
It is perverted and abused. Some rob and
scar others making them afraid to ever
love themselves, so they prostitute
themselves in exchange for false
comfort. Or they retreat and become
unbreakable, hard and callused. They
forsake the one thing they once had
faith in and become self-serving and
then steal the idea of love from
everyone else because they think they
are not allowed to have it. To that
extreme they isolate themselves and end
their lives because a life alone is not
life at all, and for all intense
purposes, they died when the idea of
love died in them. Friends, family, and
love are good. But they can be
perverted, broken, and marred.
Something is radically wrong. Good
things are not always completely good.
We are trying to live the good life but
these good things do not guarantee it.
Sometimes the absence or perversion of
these good things can be a major source
of pain. How can good be sustained? We
have seen glimpses of it. But it falls
away when it does not meet our ideals.
Why is it that even the “good things” in
life let us down.
I have an answer. We have made idols of
those good things and they have let us
down, and that idolatry has separated us
from the source of good. When we put
hope in just these good things and not
in the One who is good we fail to see
where good comes from or what good truly
is. We are left longing, wanting, empty
and dieing. This problem goes back to
the original idol, the desiring of
knowledge and the lack of faith in the
goodness of God. We thought we could be
the source of our happiness, that we
could be good. But we were created to be
in a relationship and from that
relationship goodness was sustained
through the One who created it. We
severed that relationship. The result of
that was evil, death.
There is good news, it does not end
there. Creation has cried out from that
point on for a restoration of good. The
reason that all of those “good” things
let us down now is because we seek them
without their author. God is good. He is
the entity of good. It is through Him
that things were made and created and it
is only through Him that things can be
seen and experienced as good. Not only
that, but He has gone to universal
lengths to restore His goodness. He
entered into humanity as Jesus, took up
our death and put it on Himself in order
to make a way for us to once again
experience a good God. Through Him we
have access to the goodness of the
Father. God took it and is taking it
upon Himself to restore goodness. In Him
we live in a hope of that which is
supposed to be good to be good again, by
being sustained and found in Him. It is
here that I find hope, that I have
peace. Jesus is restoring me and giving
me a good life. He is the only one that
can give a good life. He is the source
of it. There is no reason to look for
good anywhere else, because goodness
lies in Him.
There are good things in life: friends,
family, and love to name a few. These
gifts are a pale reflection of the
richness of the peace in Christ. With
Christ these good things can fall away
and a world will not be shattered. It is
with Christ that when these things are
shattered, they can be put back
together. It is only in knowing Christ
that we can recognize good things to be
truly good.
Tyler English
Doug Tidwell