Centuries before there was ice cream, Hollywood, or extreme sports to distract oneself from thinking, Socrates taught that the unexamined life was not worth living. His words speak into the tragedy of going through life having not pursued its meaning, remaining indifferent to truth, giving little thought to self-examination. Living the unexamined life, Socrates said facing the end of his own, is something less than living. Yet in our day, between nihilist and materialist outlooks, we seem to reflect more the attitude that life is not worth examining. Or else, we move from self-help book to self-help book, reflecting the attitude that examining life is a pastime or project.
Like Socrates, the Scriptures teach it is a way of life. Five times throughout the short book of Haggai, God implores the people of Israel to “give careful thought” to themselves, their behavior, their hearts and minds. The prophet instructs them to take stock of their lives and see the inconsistencies they were living with: “Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it’“ (1:5-6). It is far too easy to be blind to the incoherent philosophies and inconsistent ways we live with. It is far too easy to think of the examined life as something we will find time to embrace later.
The prophet Haggai wrote during a time W.H. Auden might have called, “The Time Being.” In a poem Auden writes,
To those who have seen
The Child, however dimly, however incredulously,
The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all.
Yet, it is, in a sense, the most significant time of all, particularly when it comes to living aware of self and awake to the presence of God. For the people of Israel, the time being had become the stagnant crossroad between remembering God in the past and wanting to find Him in the future. Coming out of a painful time of exile, the people immediately set up an altar remembering the Lord. Compelled by a longing to exalt the God they came to see through blinding trouble, within a year, they had laid the foundations to rebuild the temple. But when they were ordered by the Persian court to stop building, understandably, they yielded to the command. And yet, long after the opposition had subsided, they continued in their hesitation. They had become indifferent to the task they had once started with enthusiasm. They had no will, courage, or interest to set their minds to build again. Whether out of complacency, fear, or comfort, at the time being, they found themselves not ready. They wanted to finish the temple; they wanted to experience God and find Him in his sanctuary, but not yet.
Such are the ways I would rather not examine in myself. It often seems easier to avoid taking stock than to face the shelves of bankrupt longings, irrationalities, and empty motions. Yet, “we must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard,” cautions the writer of Hebrews, “so that we do not drift away” (2:1).
Whether it is the unrecognized hope in material things, the looming certainties of fear, or the undiagnosed putting off of certain questions, each is a sight barring our eyes from the present, with towering mountains of the future. “What if I fail at that job?” “Once I have this, I will be happy.” “I’ll deal with that later.” Through the prophet Haggai, God stirs us back to the urgency of the present, and the call to examine our hearts before the one with whom there is no hiding. “Now give careful thought to this from this day on,” declares the LORD Almighty (2:15).
Now is when God calls. Now is when Christ carries our sorrows, or fears, or disappointment. Now is when we must respond with careful thought to our ways, and careful attention to what we have heard. For God is here. Our stories may seem bound by daily pressures, fears, and longings, but our lives are woven together with the one who promises again and again: “Return to me, and I will return to you.”
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Copyright © 2005 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. “A Slice of Infinity” is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
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