Life is … (Example Essays)

I was very much interested in philosophy while in college. I would read books or attend lectures relative to issues or topics covered in the field of philosophy, such as life and death or happiness and sorrow. The more I dug in the world of philosophy, the more confused I became. Yet, I was much satisfied with the knowledge of philosophy. I thought philosophy was a study of exploring the most complex and intellectual domains in the universe. I was SO brilliant to solve the philosophical problems. Of course, I was dead wrong.

Life is a truth-seeking process during which you’ll grow in maturity and really see truth in everything. Where can you find truth? In philosophy? No. What you discover is only confusion and chaos, or I’ll say it is vagueness. In J0hn 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the Truth and the Life.” If you’re still seeking the meaning of life, Jesus is the key to it.

 

Ecclesiastes 1 & 2 are excerpts taken from New Living Translation Bible.

Ecclesiastes 1


1 These are the words of the Teacher,[a] King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem.

Everything Is Meaningless
2 “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
3 What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. 6 The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. 7 Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. 8 Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.

9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. 10 Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. 11 We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.

The Teacher Speaks: The Futility of Wisdom
12 I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem. 13 I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race. 14 I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.
15 What is wrong cannot be made right.
What is missing cannot be recovered.

16 I said to myself, “Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them.” 17 So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind.

18 The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief.
To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.

Ecclesiastes 2
The Futility of Pleasure
1 I said to myself, “Come on, let’s try pleasure. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.” But I found that this, too, was meaningless. 2 So I said, “Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?” 3 After much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world.
4 I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. 7 I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household. I also owned large herds and flocks, more than any of the kings who had lived in Jerusalem before me. 8 I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many beautiful concubines. I had everything a man could desire!

9 So I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. 10 Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. 11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

The Wise and the Foolish
12 So I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and madness (for who can do this better than I, the king?[b]). 13 I thought, “Wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness. 14 For the wise can see where they are going, but fools walk in the dark.” Yet I saw that the wise and the foolish share the same fate. 15 Both will die. So I said to myself, “Since I will end up the same as the fool, what’s the value of all my wisdom? This is all so meaningless!” 16 For the wise and the foolish both die. The wise will not be remembered any longer than the fool. In the days to come, both will be forgotten.
17 So I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling. Everything is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

The Futility of Work
18 I came to hate all my hard work here on earth, for I must leave to others everything I have earned. 19 And who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish? Yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work under the sun. How meaningless! 20 So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world.
21 Some people work wisely with knowledge and skill, then must leave the fruit of their efforts to someone who hasn’t worked for it. This, too, is meaningless, a great tragedy. 22 So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety? 23 Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless.

24 So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him?[c] 26 God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please him. But if a sinner becomes wealthy, God takes the wealth away and gives it to those who please him. This, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

24 responses to “Life is … (Example Essays)”

  1. I consider that life is a long story which records our whole memory including every detail matters. This story started to record from we were born, it can record any details which sometimes we do not know. However, when did it stop? It will stop when we finish our whole life, when we don’t have any memories which can record, then it will stop. Therefore, we should colorful our life before we can, we should colorful our own story which different from others. Everyone’s story are different; therefore, try your best to make your story more colorful than others.

  2. “Life just likes a box of chocolate, you never gonna know what the flavor is.” This famous line from Forrest Gump, I can’t agree it more. Good thing will comes, but, certainly, bad thing also comes. All you can do is handle this. Only the life with surprises is interestnig life, isn’t it?

  3. Life is such a star sparkling high above the sky,

    changing its appearance all the time for catching people’s eyes

    don’t matter how long the star persist up high

    the matter is its sparkling light

  4. Life is such a star sparkling high above the sky,

    switching its appearance all the time to catch people’s eyes

    don’t matter how long the star persist up high

    the matter is its sparkling light

  5. What is life? As for me, life is like a drama. The plots of the drama contain happiness, sadness or even anger, so does life. In daily life, we may experience sadness sometimes, happiness sometimes, or some things that I am not expected to happen. You never know what will happen next moment. Every drama has different ending, and endings come from every scenarist. Everyone can be a scenarist and control life yourself.

  6. Life is an unpredictable story. Each person has own destiny to confront everything. For example, a man may help an old lady cross the road, he must never think of the old lady is rich and give him a lot of money to be reward afterwards. Life is full of unbelivable things that everyone can’t imagine.

  7. In my opinion, life is a drama. We play many roles in our life, student, officer, mother or father, etc. Each role in different stage, we can feel different meanings of life. Sometimes we are happy, upset, exciting and frustrated. Life is up and down, and we don’t know what happened tomorrow and ending.

  8. Life is race to me! Life is long, we won’t know what will happen to us.We have to keep running and running.Maybe on the way,we will face a lot of difficulites or unexpectable things. But if we keep perseverance and patience to solve everything, the triumph must belong to us.You will never know what will gonna happen, and that’s is life.So keep running until we can’t move anympre.

  9. I think life is a story. Everyone has their own story and they are just the actors or actresses of it. There are many pieces of life can let us recall again and again; no matter the memory is happy or sad. Every life are different from others, just like every story have different plots. Everyone are the writer of their own story either; you can decide the end of the story is positive or negotiate and what kind of person you would like to be.

  10. Life Is an Experience
    One’s life in this world is but a minute in the whole history of mankind. We have only one life to live, and, therefore, we should try to live it well.
    If I had my way in this world, I’d like to travel to as many places and know as many people as I can. I believe that by knowing other people we can come to know ourselves. If you can know yourself better, you can live a more meaningful and happier life.
    We should try to spend each day as if it were our last, for we only pass through this world once.

  11. I think life is like a chess game. You have to be careful with every step you made or soon you will get checkmated. Maybe somtimes you’ll get in the inferiority, but if you use your wisdom and experience wisely and it might turn the situation over. When the game ends, whose winning will depends are you a successful person or not.

  12. Life is a long journey and you never know what will happen in the next destination. It is a journey that you have to take by yourself, thai is to say, no one else can replace you to try the adventure! The more places you go, the more mature you are.

  13. For me, life is a short story that no ones knows when the story will end or what the outcome will be. The editor of the story is you.You have the right to edit, to write the content. You may encounter problems in every chapter, but those problems will become your experiences that will help you write better, and create new chapters, also make your stoey abundant. Your abundant story could make lots of chances and color your life.

  14. Life is a glass of water. After drinking it, you would know what its tasting. On the other hand, what it would be tasted like, it depends on what kind of spice you add to.

  15. Life is a ocean. You never know what happen next. You can’t see though the ocean. There are so many different creatures, just like you will meet different people in your life. You can try to discover the unknow things in the ocean. The ups and downs just like our mood.

  16. Life is a movie. You are the best actor or actress in your life. In your whole life, lots of unbelieveable things will happened, just like a soap opera. When we are facing those problem, we have to try our best to deal with all the trouble. Your life can be like a tragedy also can be a comedy. it depands on how you direct this movie.

  17. Life is always full of unknow. Like a drama, a movie or a stage plot. Living for 21 years, when turning back to see what i had ever done, everthing is just like a dream for sure. Life is just like a dream. You are now here, but you would never know what would happen next moment. Just like we fall asleep, we would never know if there’s any exciting, interestin, or stupid dreams come. But when the dreams pass by, then we would forget. Just like we people in life. Life is so unpredictable, just like the dream.

  18. Life is a stage, a very big and colorful stage. There have different dramas everyday. One comes and one goes, each drama in my stage is live. I don’t have chance to change it. You will fail, but you cannot leave. But I expect the drama show tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. In my stage, there is no replay and no regret!

  19. Life is a factory. We work hard, try to make the best product: fame, honor, money, love. there is only one purpose for the product. Not for sale, just for display. We hope our product can be noticed by prople. Wishing one day, people would se out products, point it and say “Hey, I know thi, this belings to somebody!” Moreover, we all wish our product not only good looking but pratical.

  20. Life is like writing a book, you can be the writer and then writing down your own story. You have the power to decide what kind of ending you want.

  21. Life is a script and the composer is youself.
    Many people think life is unchangable; however, in my opinion, what kind of life you will live is depending on your own attitude. Now that you’re the composer, you have the right to create the script, it could be a romance, a comedy, a tragedy or a good story. It’s all up to you. Just like the way we hold toward the life, isn’t it?

  22. As for me, life is an album. It records all of your life. If one day you want to recall something special in your life. You just need to open it, and let it remind you what was happening that time.

  23. Life full of ups and downs, just like on the stage. We make the performance, show what we doing and what we thinking. Everything you do and every person you meet all have the meaning, they will take you to the next destination and you will find something new. Life is unpredictable, just follow your heart and you will know what to do on your next performance.

  24. Life is like grabbing the rebound. The high you leap, the chance to attack you get. Some students choose to work after graduating; while some choose to take advanced diploma. Actually, we all want to get a better job after we leave the school. To get a good job, we have to prepare ourselves well now, then we will have more opportunities than others.

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