Recently I had a chance to chat with my colleague, in the hallway, about his purchasing experience of a new automobile. He told me that he is tired of his car problems – not only there are so many recalls issued from the automobile manufacturer but also quirks and malfunctions are frequently encountered. “This is used to be a reliable and well recognized automobile that people love to own. But in recently years, its build quality was not there anymore”, sighed by my colleague. For this reason, he decided to retire his old automobile and try his luck on a different automobile manufacturer for his new car purchase.

As we are so depending upon automobiles as our daily transportation, a car problem is oftentimes deemed to be costly, inconvenient and even unacceptable. Without a good quality and reliable automobile, we are bounded to run into frustrations and inconveniences. Besides, they create many unwelcome interruptions and pressures to our life. Ironically, automobile manufacturers frequently risk their reputation in exchange of low manufacturing cost due to the ferocious market competition. This trend, however, is not unique to the automobile industry. It has been in every aspect of our daily life – cheaper technology and industrial bargains in the name of affordability. We may find that we could spend less in owning “similar looking” but “lower quality” products. The question here is this the kind of quality of life that you want? You may say, “So (just like my youngsters always answer us)…., I don’t but I have no choice!”

In one hand, yes, we may have no choice because we are living in this imperfect world. On the other hand, however, there is a choice being given to each one of us. In the letter of Apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi, he said, “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far 我正在兩難之間，情願離世與基督同在，因為這是好得無比的 (Philippians 1:23)”. Apparently, the way to have a high quality of life is to be with Jesus. The question is how to make this choice? Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)”.  The choice we can make is to receive Jesus as our personal savior. Apostle John taught us that when we make this choice, we are immediately entering God’s kingdom as His children (John 1:12).

But, we are still in this world, as a matter of fact. The choice of receiving Christ into our heart, however, would change our status from “IN this world but NOT of this world”.  The Holy Spirit who is dwelling in us would gradually transform our character into more Christlike – our mindset would be changed from focusing less on this world to more on God’s kingdom. Essentially, we will experience a higher quality of life than previous one because we are no longer thinking that we belong to this world.

This choice is yours, my friends. Are you satisfying with this degenerated quality of life or you would like to have a higher quality of life? I think the answer is obvious! May you make this wise choice!

Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.