Exposing four lies about life

On Tuesday night after our basketball game my mom gave me a book to read that she read when she was in college. The author is Charles R. Swindoll and the title of the book is, "Living On The Ragged Edge." In this book, the author really does in depth about the book of Ecclesiastes. I am only three chapters in and it is one of the best books that I have ever read. I haven't read it since Friday but when I was reading it on Friday this particular section of the book stuck out to me about the four lies of life that many people believe to be true. I am sharing these with you because they really made me think, and I hope that they do the same for you. The fourth one is what stuck out to me the most. This next part is word for word from the book.

Exposing four lies about life. 

I can think of at least four falsehoods many still call the truth.
1. "Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone."
I've found quite the opposite is true. "Laugh and you laugh alone. Cry and you get a crowd. The whole world will cry with you."
2. "Every day in every way our world gets better, better, better." I'd like to meet the guy who first wrote those words, wouldn't you? I'd string him up before sundown. What a tragic, disillusioning dream!
3. "There's a light at the end of every tunnel." Keep hoping...keep looking for it. Murphy was right when he said that the light of the end of the tunnel was really "the headlamp of an oncoming train."
4. This fourth one comes from the pop music world of yesteryear: "Things never are as bad as they seem. So dream, dream, dream." Want to sing it with me? No, probably not. Things are not really as bad as they seem. They're often worse, and dreaming won't make them better!
I heard recently of a man who looked like he lived every day of his life on top of all circumstances...never had a bad day...came to work happy...went home cheery. The people around him couldn't stand the fact that he had some secret in life. They kept wondering if that was the real truth. At a coffee break one morning, a man said to this happy guy, "Say, friend, now I know why you're always so cheery. You have really got it made! Just yesterday I was driving along in a taxi, and I passed you. You were sitting there with this beautiful young woman whose back was to the street at this romantic 'sidewalk cafe.' You and she were sitting close and you were listening intently." They guy leaned over and whispered, "Let me tell you the truth. That lovely young woman is really my wife who was telling me she was leaving mom and what looked like a 'sidewalk cafe' was really our furniture on the street!"
Things aren't as bad as they seem; they're worse.
Why do they tell us all those lies? Why do they keep telling us to look for the light at the end of the tunnel? Why do people conduct great seminars all around the world and tell people to smile more, to believe "there's a bright, beautiful tomorrow...just grab for it...go for the gusto...hitch your wagon to a star...you'll make it someday"
You know why they tell us those things? There's one simple answer: to make us believe there's purpose and happiness if we simple keep on hoping.
But hope cannot exist in a vacuum where facts are ignored. The fact is that the world is not wonderful. The world is wicked, corrupt, and depraved. And work isn't enriching and fulfilling; it's tiring and it's futile and it blows up in your face. People aren't kind and generous; people are selfish and cruel.
Life on planet earth isn't a great big bowl of cherries; it's the pits. It is boring. It is empty. It is a grind. It is "chasing the wind." And to make matters worse, apathy rules.
That's true if you're educated or untaught. That's true if you're young or old. It's true if you're a professional person or a blue-collar worker. It's true if you live in a penthouse or a little second-story flat. And it won't be different if your circumstances change. Don't believe me...believe God. And instead of blaming Him, realize He had a reason for our horizontal lives being so void of purpose.

Now my own words: Do you know what a horizontal life is? If you are familiar with the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon writes over and ever that everything is meaningless, meaningless, meaningless. King Solomon had everything that he could ever imagine and he could not find satisfaction from anything on this earth. No matter the pleasure, cost, or whatever it may have been, he couldn't find it. A horizontal life is one that doesn't look for what is beyond the sun. In Ecclesiastes, he writes that everything is meaningless under the sun. It's meaningless because you cannot experience true fulfillment and satisfaction from anything under the sun. The only way you can experience satisfaction and fulfillment is when you have a relationship with what is beyond the sun and that is the Lord. That is a vertical lifestyle and that is how we need to live and how we need to think. Eternity was set in our hearts by God. So when you are trying to live this life under the sun without every going beyond the sun, you are going to feel empty, because there is more out there. Seek God!

I hope that you enjoyed the section from "Living On The Ragged Edge." I will definitely plan on sharing more from what I learn from that book in the near future.