Get busy living or get busy dying! Spring 2012
- The Shawshank Redemption -

Do you have a favorite quote? I have many. A quick and easy game that my family enjoys playing is a game of quotes. Everyone simply takes turns saying their favorite quote and then everyone guesses. We’ve been known to play this game just standing around in the kitchen. There are extra points if you can name the author of the quote. We like to quote from movies.

Chariots of Fire is probably one of my favorite movies with many quotes that I love. You may have heard the famous quote by Eric Liddle, “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” I could write volumes about this quote. As Christians it’s important that we operate in the talents and gifts God gives us. And when you do you should feel God’s pleasure. There’s nothing else like it!

But, what if you don’t feel God’s pleasure? Life is tough, and there will certainly be days you may not feel like getting out of bed, much less experience God’s pleasure. But, as you’re growing in the Lord and doing what He has called you to do, there’s nothing else like it. Possibly you’re not operating in your spiritual gifts or could it be…you don’t know the Lord at all?

Do you remember Harold M. Abrahams? He was another runner in the movie, Chariots of Fire. There’s a scene in the movie where Harold is talking to another runner, Aubrey. He says to him, “You, Aubrey, are my most complete man. You're brave, compassionate, kind: a content man. That is your secret, contentment; I am 24 and I've never know it. I'm forever in pursuit and I don't even know what I am chasing.”

I think about the millions of people in our world who are doing the same thing. Forever in pursuit and not knowing what they are chasing. People are desperately trying to fill the void, the empty vacuum in their lives. All the fame, money, beauty, power, family and friends can’t fill it.

I so enjoy watching Barbara Walters interview the many Hollywood stars. So many of them seem to have it all, but often if you watch them talk long enough they say in so many words, I’m still looking for more.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that will ever give us true joy and lasting contentment. I like how the Amplified Bible explains, I Timothy 6:6-7 says,

And it is, indeed, a source of immense profit, for] godliness accompanied with contentment (that contentment which is a sense of (inward sufficiency) is great and abundant gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world.

Get busy living or get busy dying! This quote from – The Shawshank Redemption – is certainly an interesting quote. I don’t want to tell someone to get busy dying, but the fact remains we’re all going to die. How can you get busy living…by pursuing godliness. If that’s your life’s ambition, you will have complete contentment—the contentment that Harold Abrahams was so desperately looking for.