What Is Most Important in Your Life?

HE WAS reputed to be the richest man in the world. His personal fortune ran into billions of dollars. He was admired by many as having reached the pinnacle of success. Yet two years before he died, J. Paul Getty said: “Money doesn’t necessarily have any connection with happiness. Maybe with unhappiness.”

In the pursuit of what many consider important in life, the famous oil magnate certainly had succeeded to an outstanding degree. But did he sound like a man who had found happiness through what he had worked so hard to acquire? Or did he sound more like one who had come to realize finally that what he had worked so hard for was not that important after all?

Ideal and Reality

What do you consider most important in your life? Some people may say that freedom is what they treasure the most. Others may say that success means the most in their lives. Still others put personal fulfillment ahead of everything else.

Though they do not want to admit it, many people’s life pattern and actions betray that money and pleasure are really the most important things in their lives. They are so determined to get rich or are so bent on ‘having a good time,’ that they do not mind neglecting their family, their health, and their spiritual well-being in doing so. And interestingly, the Bible foretold that in “the last days” people would become “lovers of themselves, lovers of money” and “lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.”​—2 Timothy 3:1, 2, 4.

Something More Important

Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, posed a thought-provoking question. “Does a person gain anything if he wins the whole world but loses his life?” he asked. (Mark 8:36, Today’s English Version) Think about that. What would a person be able to do without life? Nothing!​—Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10.

You may still be young and so feel that you have plenty of time to do all the things you want to do. But do you really? Wars, crime, diseases, and accidents have struck down countless able-bodied men and women​—suddenly and unexpectedly. What happened to all their plans and goals?

You may have a family or may be along in years. So you may feel that you must put all your time and effort into building a secure future for yourself and your loved ones before you can think about anything else. But what would you consider to be secure? As you know, inflation, recession, and unemployment have eaten up the life savings of many, leaving them destitute and homeless. Besides, with conditions around the world so unstable, what guarantee is there that the things you worked hard for will not be eliminated by some unexpected turn of events?

Doubtless you see, therefore, the importance of examining your personal goals. So, what do you really consider most important in your life?

Something “Better Than Life”

As precious as life is, however, there is something that is even better. ‘Is that possible?’ you might wonder. ‘What could be more precious than life itself?’

King David of ancient Israel supplied us with the answer. Addressing the Creator, Jehovah God, he said with deep appreciation: “Because your loving-kindness is better than life, my own lips will commend you.” (Psalm 63:3) David’s heartfelt words show that to be the recipient of God’s loving-kindness, which is based on having a fine relationship with him, is even more precious than life itself. Why is this so?

What Makes Life Possible

Suppose you were given a gift, something that you really liked. Of course you would be very happy to receive the gift and perhaps get a great deal of enjoyment from using it. But you would be ungrateful, indeed, if your thoughts did not go beyond the gift to the giver. Was it not the personal relationship between you and the giver that prompted the gift? If that relationship did not exist, there would have been no gift and no enjoyment of it.

The same is true with life. Precious as it is, we must bear in mind where our life came from and how it has been sustained. Certainly we did not create it ourselves, nor can we sustain it independent of all the marvelous provisions Jehovah has made on earth. (Psalm 100:3; Acts 14:17) The very fact that we have life, and undoubtedly we are enjoying it in some measure, is an expression of loving-kindness on the part of the Grand Creator, Jehovah God. Can we not see why King David wholeheartedly felt that God’s “loving-kindness is better than life”?

There is another reason why having an approved relationship with the Creator is more important than having life itself​—our future depends on it. Let us see how this is so.

Do you not agree that life is transitory and full of uncertainties? A person may work very hard for many years in order to achieve some materialistic goal he considers worth while. Yet, death soon robs him of everything he has attained. It is just as wise King Solomon said: “What does a man come to have for all his hard work and for the striving of his heart with which he is working hard under the sun? For all his days his occupation means pains and vexation, also during the night his heart just does not lie down. This too is mere vanity.”​—Ecclesiastes 2:22, 23; compare 2:3-11.

In spite of this, it is the purpose of our loving Creator that all those who love and obey him will be liberated from the frustration and futility that is our lot today. Jehovah assures us with this wonderful promise: “They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be; and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full.”​—Isaiah 65:22.

Is this expression of God’s loving-kindness not better than our present limited and uncertain life? To be the recipient of his loving-kindness, yes, to live in that New Order and to enjoy life filled with purpose and meaning would certainly be a most worthwhile goal. To realize that happy prospect, one must gain Jehovah’s approval now and maintain a close relationship with him and his people.