In 1980 John Lennon released his album "Double Fantasy." It included the song "Beautiful Boy," with these lyrics: "Life is just what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." Weeks later, Lennon was killed in New York City by a crazed fan.

While it can be true that life is what happens when you are busy making other plans, it could also be said that death is what happens when you are busy making other plans. You can be so busy waiting for something to happen that life just passes you by.

Life and death are interconnected; you cannot really know how to live until you first know how to die. The apostle Paul had this all worked out. He came up with his philosophy of life, his purpose in life, and summed it up in a simple statement: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21 NIV). When you hear something like that, you might get the wrong idea. You might think that someone who would make such a statement isn't living in the real world. Yet it is the most heavenly minded people, those who really are living for Christ, who have done the most for this world.

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" addresses two of the most important questions of life: "What is the meaning of life?" and "What is the meaning of death?" Everyone lives for something. Even those who say they have no philosophy or master passion actually have one.

What you live for is indicated not by what you say, necessarily, but by what you do. What do you think about the most? What do you talk about the most? Whatever fires you up, whatever your passion is, that is probably what you are truly living for. So, what would you put in the blank: "To me, to live is ..."?

Some people would say, "To me, to live is to just live." Their philosophy would be to take it one day at a time – relax, be cool. They just merely exist. They don't believe they were created by God. They don't believe there is a master plan for their lives. They believe they are evolved from plankton. Therefore, they will just live the way they want to live. They don't sit around and contemplate the meaning of life; they just live for the moment and will satisfy their desires, no matter how bizarre or deviant they may be.

The Bible talks about these people: "Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things" (Philippians 3:19 NIV). The Bible isn't speaking of the actual stomach as much as it is speaking of the appetite. Their god is their appetite. These people live for what they are going to eat or what they are going to drink or what they are going to wear. It is all about the external, the momentary. And if you bring up the topic of spiritual things, they become very uncomfortable. "Just live and let live" is their modus operandi.

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Then there are those who would take it a step further and say, "For me, to live is pleasure." Pleasure can mean a lot of things. There are legitimate things that are pleasurable, things that are fine in their place. But there are others who live for something that is wrong altogether. They are living for illicit pleasure. They say, "I'm going to go and experiment with this drug and see what it does for me," or "I'm going to go and party with my friends and get drunk and see where that gets me," or "I'm going to go and have this sexual experience." They are living for pleasure, and the Bible warns that the one "who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives" (1 Timothy 5:6 NIV).

Joy Davidman, the wife of C.S. Lewis, made this statement about the foolish pursuit of pleasure: "Living for your own pleasure is the least pleasurable thing a man can do; if his neighbors don't kill him in disgust, he will die slowly of boredom and lovelessness."

Another person might say, "For me, to live is possessions." Their motto would be, "He who dies with the most toys wins." Solomon was a man who pretty much had it all. He had been there, done that and bought the T-shirt, and he wrote these words that could have been spoken by someone today:

I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. ... I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. (Ecclesiastes 2:4–8 NIV)

But Solomon concluded, "Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 2:11 NIV).

Another person might say, "Well, for me, to live is to acquire knowledge." They would look down their nose at someone who has lived for pleasure or possessions. They live to acquire knowledge. But even that – if it leaves out God – can be an empty pursuit. Again, to quote Solomon: "For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow" (Ecclesiastes 1:18).

What do you live for? What drives you? If you say, "To me, to live is Christ," this is real spirituality, not a one-clown-short-of-a-circus kind of faith. It is a faith that has its feet on the ground. That is living in the real world. It is a motivating, stimulating spirituality that should cause us to want to live a godly life. And no one loves life more than the follower of Jesus.

To live is Christ.