Don't Let Your Mind Go To Prison

Life is Beautiful

Arthur Schopenhauer saw two enemies of human happiness; need and pleasure ending in pain and boredom. He said, "The lower classes are engaged in a ceaseless struggle with need, in other words, with pain, the upper carry on a constant and often desperate battle with boredom.”

Schopenhauer looked into the eastern religions to find some kind of balance between these two enemies, but found none. Thus, he settled for pessimism generated by agnosticism.

If only he had listened to Christ, he would have found a beautiful balance between the need and pleasure. The sermon on the Mount begins with a beautiful word "Happy is the man..." and then progresses into the beauty of the lilies of the valley and the carefree birds of the air.

The Psalmist of old summarized the essence of the sermon on the Mount in saying, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will fulfill the desires of your heart" (37:4).

Man was created to enjoy the company of his creator. Sadly, Schopenhauer attempted to find happiness without the creator and thus concluded that life is practically meaningless. No wonder he is known as the philosopher of pessimism.

Life is beautiful. Life is meaningful. Life is joyful.

To enjoy this life, we must overcome the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth.

Jesus gave us the parable of the seed sower whose seed fell in good soil producing 30, 60, and 100 times more. He likened this good soil to a good and noble human heart.

The purpose of this good and noble human heart is to seek God's kingdom and God's righteousness.

When that happens, God himself comes down to take care of human need, human pain. The cross is the evidence. In the cross, Jesus took our pain. In the resurrection, he has met all human needs.

The life we live, we live by faith in the son of God who gave himself for us. If he gave himself for us, will he not give us all things we need? Indeed he will said Paul in Romans 8:31.