Being the best is not everything

There are people who find their purpose in life exclusively through attaining goals they have set for themselves. For many basketball players, to play for the NBA seems the only objective, and ultimate source of personal satisfaction. But playing for the NBA is not everything. RICK BERRY, one of the best players with the Sacramento Kings during the 1980s, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head after an argument with his wife. LEN BIAS, No 1 in the draft, signed up for the Boston Celtics but died because of a drug overdose. He had just signed one of the most expensive contracts in memory. Being the best is not everything in life.

It's not only in the world of sport where there are people who can't find the meaning of life. It happens in the entertainment world as well. We all know about the lives of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Jimmy Hendricks... they had everything: fame, money, friends, power... but I repeat, being the best is not everything in life.

Many think that if they work enough, acquire sufficient fame and climb high enough in the regions of power, they will achieve happiness and have meaning to their lives. It is a grave error to think that happiness is found in materialism and in money.

Some say that the key to life is to enjoy it while you can. But to fill your days and nights with all kinds of pleasures, without a limit to what you will do to have a good time, is also a mistake. The object of life is not pure pleasure.

Those who are most accepted in life are the ones who say that the best thing to do is behave properly; to treat others as well as possible, and to be concerned to make the world a better place. This is not wrong, but it continues to be a mistaken philosophy if it is the only motivation to life. The emptiness within us will not be filled by trying to improve the lives of others.

To have everything, to be the best, to be admired, to be saturated with money and pleasure is not all there is to life. There is something more, something much more important. Everyone has within them a vacuum that only God can fill. We all possess in our lives a space that only God can understand. We are created in such a way that only a personal relationship with God, that is direct and real, can give us meaning to life.