The Secret of Life Is . . .

When I was in my early thirties, I chose a life verse from the Bible to guide my life by: Psalm 37:4. It says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall grant you the desires of your heart." At that time of my life, I was beginning a doctoral program at the University of Arkansas, and all I could think of was completing the program successfully and becoming a professor of English at the college level. I think though that as the years have gone by that the desire of my heart has shifted from a focus on career to a focus on life itself.

I believe that the desire of our hearts as we age, assuming that we are relatively healthy, is to live forever. This world is all we know since we obviously do not have memory of our lives before birth or until we are toddlers. We cling to this world with all our strength and find it hard to imagine death for ourselves. We become less and less likely to embrace change of any sort.

I suppose the major religions of the world have picked up on this fact--that the secret of life is to desire more life. Therefore, all religions, with the exception perhaps of the Jewish faith, offer eternal life as a promise to us to achieve our immortality. We variously call this place Heaven, Paradise, Nirvana, Happy Hunting Ground, and so on. The appeal is strong: to think we will live forever in absolute peace and happiness and never die. It is no wonder that our thoughts turn to the comfort religion promises as we age.