Three Things You Should Consider In Your Effort For A Better Life (in the beginning II)

...and the one thing that really matters.

Photo by Tom Crew on Unsplash

Why does everyone want something better than good?
The honest answer is in the creation story. Many years ago I came upon this passage in Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. It’s the first two opening verses of the creation story.
I have pasted it here for easy reference. It reads:
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
These two verses form the hub of the discussion today. There are things we may merely not see looking at the text, but they are crucial in our journey for a better life.
The phrase ‘better life’ may sound platitudinous due to misuse. Of course, we know it makes the list of every motivational campaign. But yet we can’t boycott it because it’s the simplest and yet elegant way our hearts communicate it to us. Why our definitions may vary for a ‘better life’, as believers there are common points of interest. It isn’t too much of a demand to seek a better life. But here are three things you should consider, and then the one thing that matters.

1. There is a beginning for everything

Why should anyone care about the beginning? First, it will determine the direction of the journey. The doing and undoing of a man begins in a day, so it is important to be mindful of what you get involved in. The beginning is mostly the reference point of the journey. When a man wants to repent he traces his steps back to the beginning. The beginning will always be part of your history… and if you’re not going to be proud of it don’t be hooked. The beginning is the first milestone; it’s a part of the experience and the foundation for tomorrow.
what you begin to do from an early age forms the core of your life. As a young person when you’re about to untie your belt behind a closed door, remember you’re about to lay the first stone(if that’s the first time). Every addiction has a first day.
On the other hand, too, great journeys begin in a day. Every success story has a beginning too. If things have been messed up, remember, more importantly, you can set the beginning for the life you want to live — a great life I presume.
Here it is in Genesis 1 vs 1: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
God needed heaven and earth so He created them. That was the beginning of what he wanted. And If we could go back in time every one of us would love to have a glimpse of that beginning. The beginning will not always be forever — not life either. How easy it is to forget that life on earth is a journey and some of us are far down the road with no certainty of how sooner it may end. Therefore be mindful of how you set out, and remember you can always set a new beginning (maybe not without a cost).

2. It may not always look like the dream

This is not a curse. The challenges don’t show up in the dream, and maybe that’s why the dream is always heartwarming. If you are in doubt, ask Joseph the dreamer (not the carpenter). Before God had created the heaven and the earth, He may have planned it and shared His dreams— I got my clue from here(Genesis 1:26–27). But not until verse 2, down the road from the beginning, the challenges began to surface. He had both heaven and earth created but something was not right with the earth. Who would think that something like this would happen? I mean God was involved, the ‘expert at creation’, the God of all perfections. And the question is must something always go wrong? Not really, but it does and here it did.
And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

There are three challenges here: earth without form, empty and full of darkness. Certainly, that’s not the picture God had in mind (cf. Jeremiah 29:11). He needed humans to inhabit the earth, so there was no way it shouldn’t look like the earth.
’Without form’ paints the picture of ‘no direction’. The earth God had created was such that you couldn’t call it a cuboid or a sphere or a pyramid. No one could look at it and say this is what it is. It didn’t look like the dream. Joseph saw his brothers bowing before him but fleeing from Potiphar’s wife and serving in prison didn’t look like it. Some may have turned their back on what God was doing in their life because they didn’t feel like it. For a young person living in this generation with the pressure to make it, there is the temptation of turning your back on your dream when it hasn’t taken shape yet.

The fear of dealing with chaos in your life may make you want to flee. Some result in ungodliness and a depraved lifestyle. But it doesn’t solve the problem. Understand, because it doesn’t look like Josses doesn’t mean it won’t be great. You could be dealing with a formless(chaotic) earth now. Hold on, God had the same issue.
‘An empty earth’? what a depressing sight, no, not too fast. Depression at the root of it is the false perception of one’s position, with what their progress should be. It’s the adoption of a universal scale for what should characterise the unique individual. The individual becomes a needle in the haystack, a ferry in the middle of the sea. Then he is lost in the world of others.
The earth was empty because God was just beginning to build. It was a problem He had to be fixed.
The earth of God’s dream was one filled with trees, beautiful flowers, animals and humans. Are you cutting corners because you want to cut out the process and get to the end prematurely? Don’t. If it’s a worthy dream, it would require you to build.

3. Roll up your sleeves, there is work to do

It takes work, right? And that’s exactly what God did — “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden”; Some think because it’s God’s will it won’t require work. Because one would say God is solidly behind a relationship then it’ll be all roses🌹. No, not necessarily. God didn’t expect ‘a great earth’ without doing the work and you shouldn’t.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (vs 2) reminds us of the lepers who said: “Why sit we here until we die?”
The question is if there is work to do, why sit still? Arise and work; arise and shine… then shall your light break forth as the morning(Isaiah 60:1; 58:8).

Thanks for reading. We’d continue in our next issue (The Beginning III).
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