Well, here goes:
I've tried living for people, places and things. I loved my parents and I was extremely close to my mother all of my life. She passed away at age 83 and I did not want her to go. I love my wonderful husband and I know that life would be extremely hard without him. We are true soul mates. We are thick as thieves and could live alone on an island together. I absolutely adore my children and my grandchildren. Each of these human beings I hold so dear to my heart are but a vapor, just as I am. I cannot live for them. I cannot make them the object of all my devotion.
I love my house. I have lots of plans for it. When I am weary or heartsick about other things I find great solace inside it's walls. As comforting as it is I cannot cling to it. It's just wood and stone and brick and mortar. Nothing about it is lasting. A wind can come and blow it away. A flash of fire and it would be burned to the ground. You can't predict what might happen, but you sure can't expect a mere object like a building to be the thing you live for.
There have even been times I tried to live for self. I put me first. I sang opera (mememe). I strummed my own fiddle, had my cake and ate it too. Said, pfhhh to people and yes to me. It turned out royally wrong. I am flawed. I am fickle. I am imperfect.
There are some old and dear objects in my home that I love. The old pump organ that my mother saved from an old barn over 40 years ago. Great enjoyment all these years has come from playing it's keys and pressing the bellows. There's the pictures of grandparents on the wall. I see parts of myself in those features. Old jewelry and books and greeting cards from ancestors - great, but just stuff. Stuff will never give me the security I am looking for. Not really. I can't live for stuff, for I cannot take one of those things with me when I leave this earth.
So what on earth can I hope to live for? I mean really, if you want to live for something you really want to make sure you aren't wasting your time or spinning your wheels. What is there that might transcend time, be more valuable than things and comfort you when all the things of earth give way to time, decay, rust and ruin?
Here is what I live for. I live for the Lord of Heaven and Earth. I am thankful that Jesus paid the price for me to live with true purpose. I pray everyday that I learn to live more and more in the light of His Word, so that I can share the Truth about Him - that He loves each one of us completely and that He has a wonderful plan for our lives. He knew us before we were formed in our mothers' wombs. He had a plan for us before the foundation of the world. He is the only true God and yet He scoops down to our level and gives us something to live for!
"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, they are plans for good, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men's hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3: 11
Oh beloved, I hope that you will consider living for the Lord. He alone is worthy of all our worship, our time, our efforts and our hopes and joys. He loves you and He's for you and that's all that really matters.
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