The Apostle Paul's 'Super Bowl ring'

Tom Brady, quarterback for the currently undefeated New England Patriots, has three Super Bowl rings in his possession at this writing, and may be cruising toward a fourth.

You would think that would be a pretty satisfying resume. You'd imagine a young man in his shoes to be on top of the world. Yet, in a moment of honest reflection in a recent interview on CBS' "60 Minutes," Brady said, "Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still feel like there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, 'Hey, man, this is what is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life.' Me, I think, 'God, it's got to be more than this.'"

He was then asked, "What's the answer?"

"I wish I knew. I wish I knew," he replied. "I love playing football and I love being quarterback for this time. But at the same time, I think there are a lot of other parts about me that I'm trying to find."

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At the very pinnacle of his career and his game, Tom Brady couldn't seem to put his finger on a driving purpose for his life.

It reminds me of an ad I saw in a magazine not long ago. It showed a picture of a guy looking into his shaving mirror, with these words underneath: "Is it an alarm or a calling that gets you out of bed in the morning?"

Good question. What do you live for? What makes you tick? What gets you up and going in the morning? All of us need something to live for, some passion or ideal that will drive us on, give our lives purpose and meaning, raising it above the level of mere existence. We don't want our lives on earth to be some passing blip on the screen of time. We want to leave a mark. We want to make a difference.

A group from our church recently went out on the street and asked people the question: What do you live for? The answers we received were fairly predictable:

"I want to live comfortably the rest of my life."

"I live for girls and money."

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"I just want to be happy."

How would you answer that question? What would you say is the master passion of your life right now? What's your reason for living? What gets your blood pumping? If you had to sum it up in one word or phrase, what would it be?

A poll on Oprah's show worded the question like this: What is your life's mission? Seventy percent of the people who responded to that poll had no idea. Zero.

The fact is many people are enduring rather than enjoying their lives. Their favorite day of the week is "someday." Someday their ship will come in. Someday they'll get that promotion, build that dream house, take that cruise, find that perfect relationship or retire to some sunny clime. An astonishing 94 percent of the people who responded to Oprah's survey said they were just "enduring" the present while waiting for "something better to happen."

That's essentially what Tom Brady said. There has to be something more out there. John Lennon once noted, "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans." Sadly, he was killed by a deranged fan when he was only 40. One wonders if Lennon considered that "Death is also what happens when you are busy making other plans."

Here is what you need to know: Only those who are prepared to die are really ready to live. If Oprah had interviewed the apostle Paul, he would have stated his life mission like this: "For me to live is Christ." When we hear a statement like that, it may prompt us to imagine a person with his head in the clouds, or some glassy-eyed religious fanatic. Some might fall back on that old statement, "They're so heavenly minded they're no earthly good."

Most of the deeply committed believers in Christ I've met through the years have been gracious, approachable, accessible, authentic people. Sure, there are the fanatical, spacey, one-clown-short-of-a-circus types, too. You'll find folks like that in every crowd. But most of the Christians I've been around over the years have been easy people to be around ? not people who looked down their noses and made others feel condemned or unworthy. God deliver us from the weird, holier-than-thou, space-cadet spirituality!

Paul was a balanced, practical man who cared deeply about people and believed with all his heart that his message could give people a purpose for life, restore marriages, build families, shatter addictions and bring unprecedented hope, balance and happiness to men and women all over the world. He couldn't wait to get up in the morning to tell people about it.

The second half of Paul's summary of life went like this: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." You might call this the Christian worldview in a nutshell. The statement deals with the two most important, basic issues we will ever face: 1) What is the meaning of life? and 2) What is the meaning of death?

There are some who would simply say, "To live is ? just to live." Life to them means mere existence, a kind of animal condition. They have no philosophy to speak of, they don't take time to contemplate life's meaning, and they seek to satisfy their desires no matter how bizarre or deviant they might be. This type of person will get very uncomfortable with any discussion about life and its ultimate meaning. They'll say, "I really don't want to talk about it."

When Paul opened his eyes in the morning, he could say, "Hey, if I live another day, I get to serve the One I love more than anyone else in the world. And if I die before bedtime tonight, I'll be in heaven in His presence. How can I go wrong? Life and death are a win-win!"

All of us need something to get us out of bed in the morning besides the alarm clock. For Paul, it all boiled down to Jesus. And even though he spent his last few months in a dungeon and left this life courtesy of a Roman executioner, he died a happy, fulfilled man ? without even one Super Bowl ring.