Living My Best Life

"Living my best life" is a pop culture reference that embodies living a happy life doing whatever you want, whenever you want. I see this on social media in playful, seemingly harmless posts. Don't get me wrong, I see the pictures of toddlers lounging, snacks in hand captioned with this. I giggle. It's cute, I get it.

I do see the liability in this thinking, it can quickly become dangerous. The world teaches us to do what makes us happy and indulge because we "deserve" it. If you are born again in Christ, "living your best life" ceases to exist. At least it should. Our worldly desires should take a back seat. Our best life becomes what God says it should be.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2, NIV).

The Bible clearly tells us to be set apart. And isn't that a struggle? It is so easy to get caught up in the conveniences, chasing OUR dreams, and having fun to forget why we are here. Praise the Lord, I don't think this means we can't enjoy a cheeseburger or go on vacation - that's not the point! The wrong is when those things HAVE us, when they become more important to us, and they become the focus of our life. All too often I fail here. I see something shiny and get distracted.

I can see the logic in it: God loves us, so He wants us to be happy. Yes, God loves us - sooo much! But, happiness is a worldly term. God delights in us and He wants the best for us. The problem, I think, is that our definition of "best" is drastically different than God's. The Bible tells us time and time again that we should expect trials and trouble while we are on Earth, that these can be used for God's glory. This is the "best" for God; anything we can do here on Earth to show others how much He loves them IS living our best life. But don't take my word for it!

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7, NIV).

I don't know about you, but I have a real hard time rejoicing during suffering. I'd rather throw a temper tantrum and hide in my room (and sometimes I do...), usually the best I can do is to say I know God's plan is good and try to survive the storm. So for now, I will keep struggling and striving to live my best life, according to His will.