It takes the whole of life…

I got reading a bit of Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life this afternoon. Seneca was a Stoic philosopher, meaning that he belonged to a camp that “preached freedom from passion by following reason” (Wikipedia).

Seneca’s main point is that it’s pointless to complain about how short life is. Life, he says, is plenty long enough; the main problem is that we waste most of it. It’s a valid point, from my way of thinking at least. Seneca’s suggestion, of course, is that we’d do a lot better with things if we just spent all our time studying philosophy. As much as I like philosophy, I don’t think that’s the example Jesus would have us follow, however.

What particularly struck me, though, was a comment buried way down in the middle of Chapter 7. Seneca says:

It takes the whole of life to learn how to live, and – what will perhaps make you wonder more – it takes the whole of life to learn how to die.

Frankly, the quote comes off a bit like meaningless pseudo-intellectualism to me. What do you mean it takes the whole of life to learn how to die? Surely lots of people actually do die without having figured it all out. But how about the first part? How do we learn how to live?

On one level, the Christian life is pretty simple. We are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We’re to love our neighbour as ourselves. Everything else hangs on that. You can read it, you can understand the principle, in around a minute or so. On another level, though, it’s a life-long process. Tozer, in chapter one of The Pursuit of God, cries out to God to help him to desire God more; it seems the more we do know God, the more realize we need him even more still.

I am glad that, although some people may try to convince us otherwise, the good life isn’t achieved by a Stoic renouncing of all of the pleasures of life and dedication to pondering high thoughts. The good life, for the Christian, is lived in relationships: first with God, then with those around us.