FOUR ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

There are four questions that all of us need to answer in order to live a robust life:

1. Who am I?
2. What is my purpose for living?
3. How should I live?
4. What happens to me after the grave?

When we can answer these questions, we are equipped to answer every other question. Without an answer to these, we can only live a truncated and confused life. We tend to close down to the life of the mind. Solomon, the King of Israel who had everything, couldn’t answer number 4. Therefore, he couldn’t answer the first three with any satisfaction. As a result, he admitted that he hated life and concluded that all is “vanity.”

Interestingly, answering any of these questions is not possible without first answering the question of God: “Who is He?” Besides, we have to answer this question correctly. If He is just an energy force, this answer is incapable of answering any of our essential questions. We are left floundering.

It is therefore amazing that there aren’t more seekers or that seekers are satisfied when their understanding of God as an impersonal and mindless energy.

Why then aren’t there more seekers? The Bible in many ways promises, as Jesus had:

• “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

Besides, Jesus also promised great blessings in finding:

• “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

Therefore, rationality should direct us to seek. However, few are willing to take upon themselves His “yoke.” They believe that they can do better without it. It is no wonder that our Savior allows us reap the implications of our refusal to seek and to submit to him. Consequently, instead of cursing Him for our misfortunes, we should be thankful that He is still willing to call us in the midst of our rebellion. Therefore,

• “But from thence ye shall seek Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt find him, when thou searchest after him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, in the latter days thou shalt return to Jehovah thy God, and hearken unto his voice: for Jehovah thy God is a merciful God; he will not fail thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.” (Deuteronomy 4:29-31)