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The four big questions and the Lord's Prayer
Every world view and every person has working answers to the four big questions of life:
- What is the ultimate reality?
- What is the good life?
- Who is the good person?
- How can you be the good person?
For example:
| Question |
Secular Materialist |
Christian |
| 1. Reality? |
The Material world is all there is. The spiritual is not real/not knowable |
A loving God, his Kingdom, and his activities in creation |
| 2. Good Life? |
success, wealth, money health |
Living in an active relationship with God in His kingdom |
| 3. Good Person? |
someone who doesn't harm others |
A life permeated by the agape love that wills and acts for the good of others |
| 4. How? |
don't have to do anything special |
By apprenticeship to Jesus. |
If you reflect on these questions, you may notice that they align with the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray in the Lord's prayer:
| What is reality? |
Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name |
| What is the good life? |
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,
give us today our daily bread |
| Who is the good person? |
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. |
| How can we be that person? |
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. |
The profound depth of this simple prayer should encourage us to meditate on it regularly, use it as a framework for our prayers, and pray through it often. You will be praying about the big and important questions of life. Early Christians often used this prayer three times a day. How might you incorporate it into the rhythm of your daily life? |
David Wanstall, 25/11/2008
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