Salt and Light: The Examined Life
By Brent Davis, Campus Ministry Coordinator
According to Plato, Socrates told the court that sentenced him to death that “the unexamined life is not worth living” Apology 38a. Mark Foreman states that:
When Socrates claims that the unexamined life is not worth living, he is saying that we are not living the life we were created to live. To live the unexamined life is to live a less than fully human life. It is like living the life of a lower animal, like a dog or a cow. It is not the way humans were made to live. Human beings are designed to be able to reflect on the meaning and value of life and the world around them. (Foreman, 2013, p. 21)
In thinking about the problem of the unexamined life, I would like to use the metaphor of a pair of glasses. I wear bifocals, and if I want to focus on something far away, I have to use the top part of my glasses. But for something close, I must use the bottom part. Sometimes, I just need to consciously change my focus to examine my life. That is the first step to living an examined life.
If, however, the lens is damaged, I will need to get my glasses repaired before I can examine things clearly. Many of us have experienced a degree of trauma in life, and this results in a damaged view of life and ourselves.
Finally, if I wear dark glasses, things look different than if I wear clear lenses. Our worldview colors and filters our view of life, and thus, we may not observe important aspects of life that we have not been raised to see as important. To remember these three obstacles to the examined life, we can use the words focus, fracture, and filter.
The Bible helps us to focus on the important things on a regular basis by helping us to 1) set a time to focus, 2) give us new glasses for our old, fractured ones, and 3) change our worldview filter.
First, Jesus set a time to pray and focus. In Luke chapter 6, Jesus spent all night in prayer to God, and when morning came, he called the disciples and chose 12 to be apostles. Jesus examined his life through prayer before making big decisions. Second, In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us that Gentiles have a darkened (fractured) understanding, “being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts” (Ephesians 4: 18). Instead, we are to lay aside the old corrupt nature and put on the new nature “created in God’s image” (Ephesians 4: 24). Lastly, we have been taught to focus on the wrong things. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught:
24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.
25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God[e] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
To live the examined life, we must examine things in light of the right priorities; we must examine our life with a healthy outlook, and we must do this prayerfully at regular intervals.
A good resource for living an examined, Christian life is Renewing the Christian Mind by Dallas Willard.