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It was C.S. Lewis that said "Over the lives of some people at the end of life's journey could be written the words, 'fine performance, but you missed the whole point.'" And one of the major reasons for such a sad epitaph is that for many people the making of a living has become much more important than the making of a life.

So much time is spent wheeling and dealing, scraping and scheming, selling and buying, that some of the most important things in life that are intangible but nevertheless very real are totally neglected. Jesus gave us a solemn warning about this when he said 'What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul.' (Matthew 16:26)

As you look out in the world in which we live it certainly does seem to be in a mess as far as the making of a life is concerned. Young people are often frustrated when after years of study they are unable to get a job. Workers get bored with their life when they feel themselves to be just cogs in a vast industrial machine that is so impersonal, and older folk feel unwanted. Our whole civilisation seems to be in the unhappy position of the plane pilot who when asked of one of the passengers where they were, replied, 'At the moment we are lost, but we are making good time.' So who does have the answers as to the making of a life that is genuinely satisfying?

In order to be able to make a life as distinct from just making a living we need to meet the God who gave us life in the first place. When a man or woman meets up with God, then they meet up with the one who alone has the answers and who can impart the inward strength and power to enable them to make a life that is first of all pleasing to God, and then secondly, satisfying and fulfilling as far as the individual is concerned. But first of all you must meet God, and you can only meet God in Jesus Christ - and it is only then that you start to make a life as distinct from just making a living..