Life

“To move, to breath, to fly, to float, 

To gain all while you give, 

To roam the roads of lands remote,
To travel is to live.” 

~Hans Christian Andersen

What is life?  I don't usually think about such abstract questions as this.  But this quote by renowned author H.C. Andersen arrested my attention.  If life being with your family?  Having great friends?  A good job?  Is it travel, as Andersen claims?  Why, indeed, are we here?

Now don't get me wrong, I love to travel.  I have been to nearly a dozen countries within the span of 2 years.  I have seen wonderful things, met incredible people, and done some things that I never would have dreamed of.  The pages of my passport are covered with entry stamps, exit stamps, alien registration numbers, and visas. 

I don't regret anywhere that I've gone.  My experiences have been amazing.  But is that, in itself, true life?  What have we been put on this earth for?  Some people would say that travel really IS life - we've only got one life and then that's it, so you might as well have as much fun as you can!  Some people use that same logic to justify constant partying and promiscuity.  Others say that we must be good, so that our next lives can be even better than this one.  Many simply have no idea why we're here. 

But I would submit to you that our purpose on this earth is a very simple, yet exceedingly complex one.  We have been created, we live, for God.  We were made to have a relationship with Him.  And, as such, the greatest thing that we could ever do in our lives is to, as Deuteronomy says, "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

Given the emphasis that our world places on success, money, talent, fame, and prestige, that's a rather surprising definition of one's life's purpose.  But, then again, isn't our God the king of surprises? :)

Deuteronomy 6:5-9

⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.