The secret of the rich, full, and contented life is always in the simple living of life. Since there is mystery in the living of that life, man rarely, if ever, experiences the life he so desperately desires. A quick, honest look at one’s existence for most people reveals a life that falls far short of the expectations of the continual good life. Regardless of his efforts, man always seems to fall short of perfection, the complete life.

Failing to grasp the truth of living in God’s grace, man spends his days in an abnormal existence. This abnormality (experiencing life less than God intended it to be) is so consistent that man has come to accept it as the norm. This false norm has become so entrenched in man’s mind that it prohibits him from rising above the all-too-frequent hells of his life. Having never experienced the rich, full, good life of God’s grace, man fails to perceive the hell he is experiencing until it is too late.

Unfortunately, most people, including most modern Christians, struggle in life because they never get past the simple, yet profound, challenge of grace and its revelation. Grace seems to be consistently bestowed in vain (2 Cor. 6:1) or is frustrated (Gal. 2:21). Most believers experience the frustration of grace by their own attempt to live for God (attempting to live in and through the deeds of their lives) rather than to live in God (living in harmony with the outworking of grace that produces the deeds of their lives). They are their own worst enemy.

For man to experience the life he desires, he must be drawn from behind the barriers he has created for self preservation. Fearing rejection, he has hidden the real essence of himself. He has entered into relationships, but usually only for his perceived needs. He seldom, if ever, experiences the perfecting supernatural relationship of the life principle. He does not understand the connections of life.

Since all men are social creatures, what it means to be a human being is found only in the expression of the interaction of at least two people. An individual actually comes to know and to understand himself only as he sees himself reflected in the lives of others. The reflections that come back to him from the people with whom he is interacting are the sole basis for his sense of identity.

With his personal identity at stake, the right relationship is of the utmost importance if the good life is to be experienced. Unfortunately, natural man consistently fails to experience the true connecting links of life that gives a sense of wholesomeness. Unless his relationships get past the basic pleasure and utility needs, he will never experience the acceptance, the approval, and the affection he so desperately desires.

There is mystery in experiencing the connections of life. For the good life can never be experienced if the individuals of a relationship live only unto themselves. For connecting links of life to be experienced, the participants of the relationship must move away from the selfish desires of individuality. As Jesus said, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone." Living unto one’s self, using others to attempt to fulfill a perceived need, always produces abiding alone.

In the mysteries of baptism lie the secret of experiencing the good life. Wondrously, the exciting, abundant life does not come from aggressively pursuing life. It occurs in not resisting being taken to the end of oneself in order that new life might be raised out of the baptism of death. Creation tells this same story over and over again: spring comes out of winter, sunrise comes out of midnight, and the rose comes out of the planting of the seed. Life always comes out of death.

As the providence of God’s grace takes each person to the seed time of life, Jesus must become the essence of the person’s life. For only Jesus will say in those planting times, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour" (John 12:27). Every other person, when faced with this baptism unto death, will try to control the times and the seasons of harvest. Attempting to take control of circumstances, the person participates in the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The glory of the harvest however comes only in the innocence of the mind, only when the mind of the person is controlled by Jesus.