Answering Hamlet

"To be, or not to be, that is the question— Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing, end them?"

Greetings from your kinsman through Christ Cyrus. I am taking Shakespeare for English this year and we are currently reading the play Hamlet, which got me thinking when we covered these lines. This famous speech is remembered because it is a question we all ask ourselves at some point in time. To be or not to be? To live or to die? I asked myself this question in middle school when I was an emotional mess, overwhelmed by a new workload and environment. I became lazy and despondent, hostile to my family and unable to see past my own troubles. Praise God that He led me out of it and back to Him! The question posed by Hamlet is whether or not to live with all the terrible troubles of this world. His eventual answer as to why people choose to live is that we would rather deal with the hardship that we know than go into the unknown.

"But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn No Traveller returns, Puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of."

For many people that might be the case, but for us as Christians we have a different answer. Our life is in Jesus. Jesus might sound overused, but in this case it is a compelling reason. "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." Colossians 3:2 (ESV). With the joy that Jesus brings us and the hope we have in eternal life, what better reason to stay the course than to follow God's will and share Jesus with others? Setting my mind on things above has helped bring me motivation and calm in knowing what is in store. So have faith HiKoi-ers, and look forward to God's kingdom!