How to enjoy living when life doesn’t make sense
Do you ever wonder what God is up to when your life is not making sense? How do you keep trusting God when everything around you keeps falling apart or isn’t fitting the image you’d always dreamed of? How can you enjoy life when it doesn’t make sense enough to bask in?
There have been seasons in my life where life didn’t make sense. In fact, whenever I shared what I was going through with some believers, they couldn’t understand, except for a few. There were times I was unable to explain what was going on because I knew what was happening in my life was beyond my understanding.
But I had to keep consoling myself in this truth: God knows what he’s doing, even if it doesn’t make sense to me or everyone around me.
This reminds me of a quote by Francis Chan:
Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers
Although it’s not easy to remember these truths whenever we’re currently passing through the fire, or in the eye of the storm, I’ll be sharing some helpful truths that have helped me to stay alive and well even when everything around me isn’t making sense.
Your external doesn’t validate your existence
I’m currently in a season where if I was to define my life by vanity or what is currently happening around me, I would have given up trusting God. I would have wondered if life was worth living. There are some seasons I wish I didn’t have to go through. There are trials I wanted to escape and just live like a happy Christian where everything was working out fine. But then I discovered a glorious destiny cannot have a smooth path. I used to believe following God’s will meant everything would work out fine. But I realized that there’s no one who followed God’s leading who didn’t encounter life-wrecking challenges. The only difference was who they clung to and what the Lord worked in them through that process.
Joseph was a man who must have felt this way. His life was the perfect example of someone whose life did not make sense, even after the dreams God had revealed to him. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder what was going through Joseph’s mind at the time. Imagine if Joseph was to gauge his life by everything happening to him physically. He would have ended his life because he seemed to get into trouble anytime he followed God’s leading. First, his brothers tried to kill him, then they sold him. Some years after it looked like life was looking good, until Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him. He rejected her in obedience to God and guess what happened?
He was sentenced to prison.
Now, this is enough for any modern Christian to start whining, ‘Is this what I get for obeying you, God? Is this how you reward those who desire to please you?”
But what did Joseph do? He kept living for God. Because life is only worth living when it’s in service to God. And this leads me to the next point
Get out of your head and out of your mind
As an introvert whom God is transforming into a Christovert, I process things a lot. I also lived in my head a lot. But in order to live a life worth living, you’ve got to get out of your own way. You also need to get out of your mind and your head. You need to start serving others. There were times when all I wanted to do was wallow in self-pity, cry and watch a chick flick. But that’s exactly what Satan wants you to do. He wants you to focus on all the negative things happening in your life while ignoring the 1001 things that God is doing in your soul. He wants you to judge God’s faithfulness based on vanity. And he keeps poisoning your mind so that your perception of God is blurred.
So how do you overcome this?
Live a life of service. I noticed that whenever I take the focus off myself to see to the needs of others, especially spiritual needs, I forget what I’m going through and feel fulfilled.
The more I spend time with God, my challenges suddenly look small in the grand scheme of things. I was made to please God, and if God has chosen to be pleased through my sufferings, then no other life would be worth living than this one I’ve been given.
Where we find a difficulty we may always expect that a discovery awaits us.
C.S Lewis
Joseph was a man who lived for others. Even after everything he’d been through, he still loved God and kept living for Him. Even after everything he’d been through, he could still put up a cheerful face for the prisoners, enough to attend to their spiritual needs. A man who’s wallowing in self-pity cannot see when others are in need. And we all know how this intervention ‘saved’ him in the future. This goes to show how our lives are connected to others. The moment we begin living for ourselves, we become miserable and question the purpose of our existence.
Read Genesis 39-41
Stop paying attention to what you’re going through. Live life as it is. Allow God bear your burden while you bear his.
How do you bear God’s burden you may wonder? By meditating on his word, not on self.
Learn to live each day as it comes
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.-Matthew 6:34
God put me through a season where I had to learn how to live each day as it comes. Why? Because thinking about tomorrow caused me too much anxiety. Besides, I realized that worrying didn’t add to me spiritually or physically. It only motivated me to make decisions in fear. And anything that is not done in faith is sin-Romans 14:23
Have you ever seen a child worry about their future? All they do is eat, sleep and play. When they wake up, they know there will be food. Why? Because they are confident they have parents. And if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, then how much more our heavenly father?-Matt 7:9
So if we claim to be God’s baby, why on earth do we worry that God will abscond and leave us hanging? Why do we worry about what to eat and drink and wear when God is our Daddy eager to care for us?
If your child asks for bread, will you give him a stone? And if your child asks for fish you’ll give him a snake? So we need to trust that whatever challenges the Lord allow is not more than what we can bear. It shouldn’t let us fret but trust that God is better than us. So he will give us the best.
If the birds don’t worry, then why should I? Jesus didn’t die for the birds, He came to die for me. So my future is secured.
Your perception of life/living needs to change
When we check the reason why life isn’t making sense to us, it’s because we’ve defined life based on how the world defines life. Who told us life should be a certain way? Who told us living abundant life translated to making a name for yourself, buying cars and houses, and many other things that pass away with time? Why do we feel getting married and having the kids we desire is the peak of the life God has promised us? Do you know those things can even steal life from us if they are not supervised by God? They’re meant to be the means to an end, and not the end itself. If they don’t draw you closer to God and conform you into the image of Christ, then you haven’t lived a fulfilled life. No matter how good it may feel or look.
But when we understand that the joy of life is in the process, perhaps we will approach life differently. We will see our trials and tribulations in a new light. We will glory in our dealings, knowing that the Lord is expressing life through us, even as we die daily.
Have you observed that the best-selling stories are those faced with challenges and tribulations? Many of my favorite movies are based on stories where the hero is faced with countless challenges, a scary adventure, a horrible villain, and a love that triumphs in the end. And that’s what makes the story worth reading and writing.
Joseph’s life was worth reading and writing about because he fulfilled God’s purpose. His life yielded to God in such a way that God used him to preserve the Messiah’s lineage. Just imagine if Joseph had committed matters into his hands and lived life for himself? Imagine if Joseph was tired of living for God. What if he was tired of the challenges he was being faced with?
He would miss out on the purpose of God for his life.
I don’t think there’s anyone who likes reading a story or watching a movie where nothing is happening. It’s the reason why we resonate strongly with characters that have gone through a lot and amidst it all, they triumphed in the end.
Here’s a consoling fact: All things are working out together for our good.
This is your story. This is your life. It’s only worth reading and writing about because, despite everything that happened, you came out glorious in the end. No matter how many times you fell, you got up to stay in the fight. Because as long as it’s not the end, then God isn’t finished with you yet.
As long as you’re still breathing, your story isn’t complete yet.
So get up and start living. Abundant life awaits you.