Before I start the real post, the orange asiatic lilies in my backyard are in full bloom, in their June radiance.  This means that Consider the Lilies of the Field has been in existence for a full calendar year, through every season of the lilies.  They made it to another sparkling bloom, and let’s hope this blog does, too. Click on this link to read the first blog post: https://lookatthelilies.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/hello-world/ 

Now on to more important writing.

Since most are familiar with the Facebook method of communicating one’s feelings by clicking a button with a thumbs-up symbol, let’s say facebook asked you to vote on life.  Would you “like” it?  Would you not “like” it?  Would you ignore the question as not being worth your time?

Life.  Seeking a definition for “life” is a big, if not insurmountable, challenge.  We all have life, we all want life, we all think life could be better (or worse).  Every discipline of study out there relates to some aspect of life – every book written touches life in some way – so life as a subject is vast and immense.  To get to a single definition of what constitutes life was impossible for the wordsmiths who created the Merriam Webster Dictionary.  This dictionary has no less than 20 distinct definitions listed  for life.  Click here.  So, I will not try to outdo Webster by attempting to condense “life” down into a few concise words.

While we’re all gullible to the clever advertising message that life can be found in a vacation home – or a toy that we don’t yet have – beyond that there is the mysterious, undefinable thing that is “life,” what makes us alive.  The Hebrew word chai gets at this deeper meaning of life often lost in American English.

Life is what we have, what we’re familiar with.  It’s really “it.”  We to try to understand it, examine it, study it, read about it, write about it, discuss it, enjoy it, live it, and recreate it. What else is there besides life, with all of its complexity?  Being without life, dead, is not something we like to think about.

I am about to launch into verse three of Psalm 63.  I have the first two verses in my memory, and am ready to take on the next one.  I could stop with the first two verses, but I want to make the entire psalm my own. The next verse, Psalm 63:3 reads, “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”

That “better than life” phrase sticks out like a sore thumb.  Of course this guy – the writer of these words – had life. He had the same stuff that we’ve got, the deep, mysterious, chai/life.  And possibly enough status, power, wealth, prosperity, and good looks to make him happy. Yet here he is saying there is something better in the steadfast love of his God.

Life has its moments.  Good moments and bad moments.  If I paid attention to facebook when “life” flashed by, I would give generally give it a thumbs up like.  It could be better, could be worse.  In every sphere, I can think of many things that would improve life and make it better.

This psalm writer isn’t promoting anything to make life better, though.  He isn’t jumping on the American advertising genius to promote the latest version of Apple’s iPod or real estate in the Bahamas to make life better.  His thought process seems completely upside down.  He is not talking about making life better, but about God’s steadfast love that is better than life.

Life is good – but God’s steadfast love, why that, is better.  If required to choose between good and better, most of us would choose better, I’m guessing?

This better thing is all over the Bible.  Such a fantastic idea – maybe it’s real. Stay tuned for future posts!