ON CHRISTIANITY

DEAR REV GRAHAM: I don’t think it makes any difference how I choose to live, as long as I’m not hurting anybody. You’ll probably tell me I ought to obey the Ten Commandments or something, but I’ve chosen to make up my own rules. What difference does it make anyway?

— R.B. DEAR R.B.: Recently a friend told of reading the biography of one of England’s most famous writers and public figures. Like you, this person chose to live by his rules, and his one goal in life was to experience every pleasure he possibly could. But as his life drew to a close he admitted that everything he’d tried eventually soured, leaving him empty and depressed. Tragically, he died a broken and lonely man.

The reason I tell you this is because this will almost certainly be your experience, even if you refuse to admit it right now. Yes, you say you aren’t hurting anyone by the way you’re living but you’re wrong, because the one person you are hurting is yourself. Like the writer of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, you’ll eventually be forced to say, “Everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).

But your life doesn’t have to be this way. God made you, and life’s greatest joy comes from knowing Him and discovering His plan for your life. God doesn’t hate you; He loves you. Why go through life living a lie, the lie that you know better than God how best to live?

I invite you to turn to Jesus Christ and commit your life and your future into His hands. He alone can give you the peace and joy you seek, and He alone can give you hope for the future. Open your heart and life to Him today. billygraham.org