My mom recently bought a TV made by LG, and when I was out in the garage working out I noticed the box. On the narrow side facing up was the brand name and slogan: “LG: Life’s Good.” For some reason I got wondering about that slogan. Is life really good?
Imagine being someone in a developing country who has just lost another child and is struggling to find enough food to eat for the day. Is life good for you?
Imagine being a soldier and seeing yet another group of civilians killed. Is life good for you?
Imagine being a person with deep, never-relenting depression. Is life good for you?
Imagine, I thought, all the possible people who could buy an LG television and see the slogan on that box. What would each person think of it? Some would agree; some might not. Some (perhaps most?) might not even notice the slogan; they might just throw the box out and busy themselves with setting up the TV. No time for reflecting.
The fact is, life—as in, each person’s individual life—may be good or not so good at any given time. But I think LG’s slogan is going for something deeper: life itself is good.
Life itself. The concept of life. Life, in general. The state of being alive and being able to experience things.
That is good.
And that thought is even more intriguing than the former. Is life itself really good?
God is the author of all life. God created us to be alive. God saves us so we won’t be dead forever; we will instead be alive forever.
God is alive and has never been dead. Since God is good, it follows that life must be good.
But putting that argument aside, can we look at life and see its goodness? I think so. I’ve wanted to die, and many others want to die at various times, too. But many of us don’t want to actually die; we just want an end to the pain. To us, pain is life and life is pain, because life here is marred by sin.
Imagine: eternal life without pain. No pain, forever.
But back to life’s goodness. Can life, even now, even in its sinful state, be good?
Life enables us to have relationships with others; to experience pleasure; to communicate, understand, and create; to work and produce. All of these things are incredibly satisfying. Life enables us to change, grow and become better creatures. Life creates the possibility for scenarios which might never happen if we were all dead.
That is why I think life is good. So if you were expecting me to bash LG: sorry. To LG, I say: Thanks.
