{"id":387,"date":"2012-04-14T02:18:05","date_gmt":"2012-04-14T02:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robstarner.com\/?p=387"},"modified":"2012-04-14T02:18:05","modified_gmt":"2012-04-14T02:18:05","slug":"the-good-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/?p=387","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Good Life’"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"\"<\/a>What if your car radio was stuck on the same radio station\u00a024-7?\u00a0 Worse yet, what if it was stuck on the same song?\u00a0Every time you get in the car—same station, same song.\u00a0Even those with minimal mental faculties would find that . . .\u00a0 well . . . annoying.
\nTruth be told, however, for most of us this is all too true spiritually. And I can imagine that God finds
\nthat . . . well . . . annoying.<\/p>\n

You see, most people\u2014whether we achieve it or not (and most don’t)\u2014most of us picture the “good life” as cruising through life’s attractions eating popcorn and enjoying the shows . . . with the radio stuck on one station: WIFM (What’s In it For Me?) And the song? EITHER the ever popular now-in-its-fourth-decade-and-destined-for-immortality Burger King jingle “Have It YOUR Way!” OR the equally well-beloved McDonalds jingle that promises to “do it all for YOU!” Take your pick. You know, have it YOUR way.<\/p>\n

Viewed from the outside, the silliness of this self-centeredness might almost be humorous, perhaps even entertaining\u2014were it not so potentially lethal. Spiritual and even psychological health depends on the quality of our relationships with others\u2014and, most importantly, with the One who is Wholly Other. Self-centeredness and Other-centeredness are mutually exclusive mindsets. We are free (and indeed responsible) to choose.<\/p>\n

The true measure of love is the extent to which we are willing to sacrifice what we have to benefit the ones we claim to love. Jesus is the quintessential example. His self-sacrificial and atoning death not only made eternal life available to all; equally importantly, it showed us how to live. Thank God that our Divine DJ spins a different tune:<\/p>\n

Jesus paid it all;
\nAll to Him I owe;
\nSin had left a crimson stain;
\nHe washed it white as snow!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s take our cue on the ‘good life’ from the One Who lived the ‘best life’! Let’s determine to follow Jesus’\u00a0lead: “Go, And Do Thou Likewise”!<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if your car radio was stuck on the same radio station\u00a024-7?\u00a0 Worse yet, what if it was stuck on the same song?\u00a0Every time you get in the car—same station, same song.\u00a0Even those with minimal mental faculties would find that . . .\u00a0 well . . . annoying. Truth be told, however, for most of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7,8],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biblical-themes","tag-discipleship","tag-the-good-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}