Who Has the “Good Life?”

Author’s note: Entering a foreign culture is cause for reflection and opportunity for comparison. Sitting on the plane returning from a mission trip to Tanzania, Africa, and then waiting for a delayed connecting flight in a busy DFW airport. My thoughts turned in this direction.

Though Americans and Tanzanians live on the same planet, they live in different worlds. In so many ways, we are a hundred years ahead of them—medically, technologically, educationally, and materially. We would not even consider trading places with them. In areas like transportation, food preparation, hygiene, farming, and entertainment, their lifestyle does not even register on the same scale with the American way of life. For these reasons, we feel sympathy for them.

But in other ways, they still have what we left behind. They seem to enjoy life and laugh a lot more than most Americans (cf. Prov, 17:22). They still have time for Bible classes and preaching (1 Cor. 1:18). They have large families with plenty of children playing all around (cf. Psa. 127:3-5). They still enjoy the simple pleasures we gave up long ago. They aren’t rushed and have time to “stop and smell the roses.” For these reasons, we find ourselves a little envious.

So, who has the “good life?” You decide…

• They worry about getting enough vitamins and protein in their diet; we worry about getting too much cholesterol and fat.
• They wear their clothes out because they wash them on a rock; we throw ours out because they are last year’s fashion (cf. Prov. 1819).
• They worry about chasing rats away; we worry about winning the rat race. [“Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat” (Mk, 6:31).]
• They live in mud huts because they cannot afford better houses; we live in better houses that we cannot afford. [“… beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Lk. 12:15).]
• They are poor and humble; we are rich and proud. [“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17).]
• They die at forty with disease and poor medicine; we die at fifty with heart attacks and lung cancer, [“…know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost… therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit…” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).]
• Their women never wear pants in public (only dresses); ours hardly wear anything at all, [“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety…” (1 Tim. 2:9a).]
• They bathe naked (nearly) in a river for lack of indoor plumbing; we have it and (sun) bathe naked (nearly) on a beach. [ “…whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Mt. 5:28); “…that no (wo)man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his (her) brother’s way” (Rm. 14:13). ]
• They are glad to have any clothes without holes; we won’t wear clothes unless they have the right name on them. [“…not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array” (l Tim.
• Their children are poorly dressed but sit quietly through two-hour services; ours are immaculately clothed but get a drink of water every ten minutes and won’t behave. [“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right” (Eph 6:1).]
• We’ve wiped out malaria and typhoid; they are not bothered with hypertension and lung cancer.
• They worry about malnutrition, undernourishment, and starvation; we worry about anorexia, obesity, and bulimia.
• They are poor and satisfied; we are rich and discontented. [“But godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6).]
• They have little and want little; we have a lot and want more. [“For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content” (1 Tim 6: 7, 8).]
• They ask for an extra preaching service each night; we complain if the preacher goes over five minutes. [“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Mt. 5:6).]
• They know nothing of TVs and VCRs; then again, they know nothing of dirty movies and seven wasted hours a day. [“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Mt. 518); “Redeeming the time…” (Eph 5:16).]
• They don’t have telephones, but they don’t have telemarketing, either.
• Their pace is slow, but they have time to talk after a worship service; ours is fast, but we have little time for each other. [ “…wait for one for another” (1 Cor. 11:33); “…let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” (Heb. 10:24).]
• They have no cars, so they walk everywhere; we drive everywhere and then walk in the park for exercise.
• Their men marry seven wives at a time; ours marry seven wives—one after another. [“Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery…” (Mt, 19:9).]
• They live in misery and long for heaven; we live in luxury and doubt the afterlife. [“Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20b); “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Mt. 25:46).]
• Their children play with homemade toys for hours; ours tire of electronic games ten minutes after opening them.
• They are poor, and steal; we are rich, and covetous. [“Let him that stole steal no more…” (Eph. 4:28); “Mortify therefore… covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5).]
• They believe in superstition and witchcraft; we have motels with no thirteenth floors and read our horoscopes each morning. [“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these…idolatry, witchcraft, hatred…” (Gal. 5:19, 20).]
• They live in mud huts with no doors, but are unafraid; we live in mansions with alarms and fear for our lives.
• They have no Bibles but beg for them; we have several that we rarely open. [“…they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).]

Which has the good life? Neither. Who does? Those who make it to the perfect land of eternal delights (Rev. 21)!