Would You Want to Know?

In the 2003 movie, Big Fish, a son tries to sort out truth from legend in order to discover more about his dying father. The son – played by Ewan MacGregor – feels like his Dad has lied to him all his life, telling him “fish tales” (hence the movie title). It’s a weird movie, but I really enjoyed it.  One scene in particular stood out. In one of the dad’s stories, as a young man, he snuck into an old house that was rumored to be haunted. Legend had it that an old woman lived there, and she had an eye… and if you looked into the eye, you could see how you would die.

That’s an interesting ice-breaker question, now isn’t it? If you could find out when or how your life would end… would you want to know? What difference would that information make in how you lived today?

Why is it that life is often lived best when we start with the end – the eulogy, the tombstone – in mind. What do we want to have said about us when our time is done? What will have made our life truly successful and significant?

This is the idea Paul is getting at, I think, in Ephesians 5:

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:15-17)

If “the days are evil,” if time itself is plotting against us – how do we overcome it and “live worthy of the calling with which we have been called” (Eph. 4:1)? The first part of Paul’s answer is to understand what the will of the Lord is. How do we do this? Well, the obvious answer is “read your Bible.”

But this is 21st century America – and we don’t read. We watch video – whether it’s on TV or the web or our phones. We read texts or tweets or status updates. But read books? We don’t usually have time (or the attention span) for that.

The trick there, though, is that God has revealed His plan and His will primarily in a book. He could have put together one heck of a video, I bet. But for whatever reason, He chose to reveal His will and plan in writing. To put it another way, God intended for us to know and understand a lot about His plan and His will – so He revealed it in book form.

On average, we get about 75 or so years on this earth to do something with. At the end of my life, I want to have lived in such a way that it mattered that I was here. I want to have “walked wisely,” in a way that shows I understood the will of the Lord and acted accordingly. That’s the example I want to show for my girls. Even more, it’s the reason God saved me: so that I could live a life of eternal significance. But the only way I will know how to make the best use of the short time I have is by knowing well what God has revealed about His will… in the pages of His Word.

Some questions for discussion:

1. If you could find out when or how you would die… would you want to know? Why or why not?
2. What would make you consider your life significant and meaningful – a success?
3. How did you come up with those measures?
4. Do you believe the Bible is God’s primary means of revealing His will to His people?
5. Studies show that the average American home has 4 copies of the Bible, yet 60% or more of Americans interact with the Bible (meaning they read it or have it read to them) less than 1 day per week. Why is it so hard to read the Bible?