At a banquet for an academic society, I sat next to a world-renowned scholar. I knew he was admired globally for the books he had written and for his lectures. I also knew that for years he had been struggling with depression. He told me that he was dependent on medication and counseling to keep him going. Then he said, "But Jesus Christ gives me a reason for living." Those words are etched in my memory.

Whether we are afflicted physically or distressed emotionally, or if we are robustly healthy in body and mind, we all need a reason for living. If we are merely existing from day to day, we understand what Shakespeare meant when he wrote that our lives can be like "an idiot's tale, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

In the midst of our frantic activity we occasionally become aware that apart from a life of faith in Christ there is no eternal purpose for what we are doing. Our busyness keeps us from facing the fact that everything we do adds up to zero—unless we believe what the apostle Paul said, "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21).

Is that your testimony? Are you experiencing in Jesus Christ a life that is really worth living?    — Vernon C. Grounds