Is It Enough to Live One Life?
When the ideal life isn't within reach of everyone
What is one life? How do we even begin to measure it?
Do we measure it by years? Do we quantify it by laughter and tears? Or should we try to see it through every moment of immeasurable love?
Given the chance to choose, would you grab the chance to live another lifetime? Would you convince your loved ones to do the same?
Not many people live the kind of life they would have wanted.
Some live very short lives. Others live it while enduring sickness, disabilities and other conditions we can’t even begin to imagine.
If only everyone could live a healthy, long and fulfilling life! If only we could all travel where we want, eat and drink whenever we feel like it, pursue the hobbies that can make us feel satisfied.
Perhaps then we could share our happiness with everyone and say, "Ah, this lifetime is enough for me. I couldn't ask for more."
But that is not our reality.
We’re born into a world where poverty, wars and other calamities exist. We see people without even a place to call their home. People who don’t even know where to find their next meal.
Not everyone can rise up from these conditions. No matter how persevering and diligent others may try to be, there is no assurance that life would eventually give you what you deserve.
What then do we say to people who have not been as fortunate as the rest?
I’m not saying we shouldn’t count our blessings. I’m not saying we shouldn’t enjoy the things we have and appreciate the beautiful people we have in our lives.
But let us not close our eyes to the suffering of other people. Let us not think that everybody else has what we have.
What can you possibly do for your neighbor?
While you may give to charities now and then, you can’t possibly help them all. You can’t possibly stop every calamity, end every famine, prevent all injustice and every man-made cruelty that affects the lives of countless human beings.
If you love your neighbor as you love yourself, you can’t face this truth and not feel your heart ache for your fellowmen.
Because not everyone can live an ideal life. And even if one could possibly live it, it would still be too short for the infinite vastness of love.
“He has also set eternity in their hearts…” — Ecclesiastes 3:11, WEBBE
Note: The above article does not in any way promote “reincarnation”. As a Catholic, I firmly believe in one earthly life before heaven, purgatory or hell.
For more discussion about reincarnation, you may want to read my related post:
Jocelyn Soriano is the author of “To Love an Invisible God” .
Is it really possible to love a God we cannot even see? Can we really love Him as we love another Person? A Person who can listen to us and respond to us? A Person who can know us far more intimately than any human being ever can. Read more about “To Love an Invisible God — click here.