What Is Life All About?


      I've only one life; it soon will be gone.
      What will remain of the things that I've done?
      Will I be remembered as someone who cared?
      Someone who sympathized? Someone who shared?

      Will the things that I did while on earth be worthwhile?
      Have I lightened a load? Gone the second mile?
      Did I put off my ambitions? Put them on hold?
      To help someone else in reaching their goal?

      If I can say YES to these things, and more,
      Then I'll not be ashamed when I reach Heaven's shore.
      I will hold my head high, when I'm called by my Lord
      To stand before God to receive my reward.

Have you ever gotten up in the morning and asked yourself the question: "What in the world is life all about? What is worthwhile? I get up and go through the same routine day after day. What for?"

James 4:14 "Wherefore ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

Let's examine these questions: What IS life all about? What is worthwhile? What is junk? We have only one life to live. We want to make the most of it. But how can we accomplish this, with the energy and resources we have? What in life can we afford to let go of? The answer, if we think about it, is plain: Let go of anything we can't carry with us into eternal life.

  1. What about pretense? Are we 'pretenders'? Do we pretend to be something, someone we are not? Do outsiders see a different 'us' than our family sees? "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16   Eternity is not for pretenders.

  2. What about worry? "Do we worry about things that MAY happen?" Leave the future to God. We don't know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future.

  3. Are we discontented? We must make the best of what we have, without complaining. Are we always wanting something better? If we look around, we can always find someone worse off than ourselves.

  4. Are we self-seeking? Are we like a two-year-old, always looking out for Number One? "In eternal life there is no greed. One hears of neither 'mine' nor 'thine'. All things are for all."

Now here are some things we can hang on to, or adopt:
  1. Make use of our time. If we waste a minute here and a minute there, before we know it, we have wasted perhaps an hour. A whole hour out of our day! The question in life is not "How much time do I have?" It is "What shall I do with the time I have?"

  2. Value work. We must ask ourselves: "Is this work vital for strengthening my own character, or inspiring others, or helping the world?" Of course, one must work to earn a living, but it is HOW we do even menial tasks that counts. We must value the work God has given us to do, and do it to please Him and to be a testimony to those with whom we work.

  3. Seek happiness every day. If we are not happy today, we will never be happy! Or as an old teacher of mine used to say: "If you are not happy anywhere, you will not be happy anywhere." It took me a few years to figure that one out. But she was right. Be happy today, regardless of circumstances. This doesn't mean that we have to go around laughing all the time. What it means is, be happy within ourselves so that our happiness will shine through us to others, radiating Christ.

  4. Cherish love. "True love never nags. It trusts. Love does not have to be tethered, neither in time or eternity." Jealous love, exclusive love, selfish love: these kinds of love are not true love. "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, nos not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil...." I Corinthians 13:4 & 5 (NKJV)

  5. Have Faith. This is all-important. "Strong, serene, unquenchable faith in the loving kindness of God will enable us to look fearlessly towards the end of the temporal existence and the beginning of the eternal, and will make it possible for us to live our lives effectively, grandly."

Summing it all up: Let go of everything you cannot carry into eternal life.


- Helen Dowd -


[ by Helen Dowd Copyright © 2004, (helendowd@shaw.ca) -- submitted by: Helen Dowd ]

       

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