The Struggling Believer of Jesus
I Could Live With You—this song by Faith First immediately came to mind, with its lyrics graciously pouring over my head, when I read the following words.
“To live a life without the existence of God, what a pitiful human existence that would be.”
Sandra C., ARISE Online Student
To this comment on the quiz discussion section of our lesson on Evolution: A Brief Critique—Part 1 (with David Asscherick), I responded:
Indeed! This reminds me of the song “I Could Live Without You” by Faith First.
So, here it goes: the lyrics (and Spotify music embed) of one of my childhood favorites:
I Could Live Without You (Faith First)
I could live without You, I know I could get by
Millions of people do—why couldn’t I?
I could live without You, through the motions once again
Maybe even laugh and smile, oblivious to sin.
But why should I merely survive
Content with just being alive?
The best life can offer, the world and its gold,
Is nothing to the treasure You hold.
I could live without You (without You),
But what would living mean (without You)?
Not a chance of escaping hell, a dark eternity.
And now I have the strength to say,
Lord, I’ve seen life from both shores.
Before I chose You, Jesus, You chose me.
Now find me, fully Yours.
For why should I merely survive
Content with just being alive?
The best life can offer, the world and its gold,
Is nothing to the treasure You hold.
And now I have the strength to say,
Lord, I’ve seen life from both shores,
Before I chose You, Jesus, You chose me.
Now find me, find me, FULLY YOURS!​
Indeed, I could not live without Jesus
In case you didn’t know, I attend ARISE Online. It’s a discipleship program by Light Bearers. I’m already at the “Creation” part of “The Story” (I’ll talk more about this later).
Anyway, there’s one quiz question in the Evolution lesson that said as follows:
Read the quotation below. Then answer the following question: How does evolution undermine the inherent value of human life?
“Before Darwin, we thought that a benevolent God had created us. [After Darwin, we realized that] no intervening spirit watches lovingly over the affairs of nature.”
– Stephen Gould, Ever Since Darwin (1977)
To which I responded:
Evolution reduces human life as a product of mere chance. With evolution, there’s no aim or grand purpose behind life. In fact, there’s no reason to live. If our object was only survival, why make the effort? Why not waste away in the here and now with mere temporal pleasure? Thinking that way for just a few minutes is already depressing.
Indeed, I would only feel like a dying soul if that’s the case.
How about you?
Do you also think that a life emerging from mere mindless chance is not worth living at all?
Isn’t knowing that a loving Creator God has created you and me and provided for everything we needed—isn’t this actually more appealing to our burdened and anxious hearts?
Well, I do think people have reasons for choosing otherwise, i.e., for choosing to embrace evolution and reject the idea of both God and Creation.
What could be those reasons, you ask?
Well, moving forward, I’m excited to share with you some of my learnings as I continue to go through ARISE Online.
In the meantime, feel the peace of meditating through the lyrics and melody of the song I Could Live Without You by Faith First.