Your ‘Best Life’ or the ‘Right Life’?
“Living your best life” sounds so appealing, doesn’t it? It just… feeeels right. Inspiring and deserved––the way life ought to be. A quick Google search affirms this. One of the top results for “how to live your best life” describes it this way:
“Welcome to the road to your best life. On this path, it’s OK to want. It’s natural to dream and wish. We are powerful creators, and learning to harness that power is part of creating a life worth living.” – LiveMyBestLife.com
“Dream”… “wish”… “harness the power”… “create a life worth living.” You’ll find similar sentiments strewn throughout the search results.
No doubt we’re to take responsibility for the way we live our lives. But is it accurate to think that we are “powerful creators” who can “harness power” to create a life we think is worth living? When you consider what we currently do with the limited ‘power’ we have, are you geniunely convinced we should be given any more? There isn’t anything inherently wrong with wanting, or dreaming, or wishing, so long as it isn’t done to the exclusion of reality. I think that is what distinguishes living your ‘best life’ from living the ‘right life’. Reality.
Our acting like we have this ‘power’ is a little like believing we can fly. It’s just a matter of flapping your arms hard enough, and we can go anywhere we’d like. Until we actually try to do it.
Reality is a dream-wish-want stopper. As it should be. It helps us determine if our fantasy is just that: wishful thinking. Because God rules reality, it is in our best interest to think in terms of what is real and what is right. Living your ‘best life’ may not be right. And if it is not right, can it be best?
Contrary to popular belief, our efforts should not be spent trying to get the most out of life, but rather, putting the most into it.
Jen Oshman, in her article, Lose Your Best Life, touches on the biblical basis for the “right life”:
“Counter to our flesh and our culture, Paul shows us how living the best life that Jesus offers is a pouring out that leads to joy. This approach to life directly opposes the health, wealth, and good life that we in the prosperous West have come to expect.” – Jen Oshman, Lose Your Best Life https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/lose-your-best-life
You could say that if you truly wanted to live your ‘best life’ it can only mean you should live the ‘right life’.
What is The Right Life?
By pursuing our best life, we may entirely miss the life we were called to live. That is, the right life. Living your best life is best for you. Living the right life is best for everyone. The right life is a life that is intentionally infused and directed by wisdom. And it starts with a decision. Am I ready and willing to receive wisdom?
“Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it.”
– Proverbs 8:33“Listen to counsel and accept discipline, That you may be wise the rest of your days.”
– Proverbs 19:20“How blessed is the man who finds wisdom… For her profit is better than the profit of silver; And her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; And nothing you desire compares with her.”
– Proverbs 3:14-15
The “right life” is not about being right. It’s about getting life right. The “right life” is the life we experience when we receive and apply God’s wisdom. Our lives can’t be ‘right’ if we are not abiding by the Creator’s intention for our lives, both generally and specifically.
“Right living (read: The Right Life) comes from right thinking, right thinking comes from right thinking about God.”
– Dr. Earl Radmacher
By pursuing our best life (i.e. great wealth, the highest leadership, ultimate personal satisfaction), we may entirely miss the life God intended for us to live. And that just wouldn’t be right.
We don’t always know what is best–and we certainly don’t always desire what is best. Living your “best life” sounds good, because it is best for you, but living a life of wisdom (The Right Life), is what is truly valuable, glorifies God, and is best for everyone.
The Right Life is a life given to us by God as we receive wisdom, and everyone is served by our living wisely. As Proverbs 3:15 indicates, living the Right Life is incomparable.
Solomon and The Right Life
Solomon chose The Right Life. When he was given the opportunity to ask God for anything: power, riches, land… he asked for wisdom in order to effectively lead God’s people. In 1 Kings 3, Solomon requests that God give His servant:
“…an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him… “I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days” (1 Kings 3:9,10,13).
The Right Life is a life of wisdom intentionally lived out for the benefit of others, and ultimately, God’s kingdom. Doesn’t that sound best?
However, Solomon certainly wasn’t perfect. In the latter half of 1 Kings we see his pursuit of wisdom give way to “living his best life.” After 40 years of peace, his kingdom is divided:
“And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel… “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant… I will surely tear the kingdom… out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen” (1 Kings 11:9,11-13, emphasis mine).
When our hearts “turn away from the Lord”, we, in effect, turn from God’s intention for our lives to instead live our ‘best life.’
While the odds are pretty good we’ll never be king, we do have two things in common with Solomon. As we seek to live The Right Life, we first must realize that we too have been given a kingdom of sorts; a realm of influence over which we are charged with fulfilling our God-apppointed purpose in the lives of those we are called to care for.
Secondly, wisdom is available to every one of us. At about 19 years old, King Solomon was given a kingdom that was every bit the size of Illinois. Having assumed the authority over God’s chosen people, he was desperate for the understanding and ability to govern them properly, honorably–and God gave it to him.
Solomon’s encounter with God provides us the secret to The Right Life. It is the powerful combination of encountering God and requesting that He grant us the ability to properly and skillfully handle this great opportunity that we have been given. And it all starts with a decision: Will you choose The Right Life?
Scott
Explore wisdom further:
Define Wisdom
Words of Wisdom
Scriptures on Wisdom
New Testament Scriptures on Wisdom
Proverbs Scriptures on Wisdom
New Testament Scriptures on Wisdom
