In Service To part 2
When we start to understand what this life is really all about--the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God that is a life of LOVE--we start to live in service to love. And by that I mean GIVING it, not trying to GET it. Because when we start to understand that the gift of God IS that life of God... and that we have already been given that gift... and that we experience that gift by giving it away... by sharing it... that we receive that gift that we've already been given by releasing it... that's when we are truly alive. Because living and loving aren't just connected. They are the same thing. To live is to love and to love is to live. So I guess what I'm trying to say is: when you understand what life is really all about... you can start to live. And I've always said the hardest part of life is living, but the truth is... when you do everything you do in service to love... things start to flow. Because when you're living a life of love, you're living a life of rest. You're doing everything you do from the inside out. Not from the outside in. Not trying to get something, but because you have something. I'm convinced that that's what the Bible means when it says, "Either way, Christ's love controls us..." (2 Corinthians 5:14 NLT). Because either we think we don't have love and we do everything we do in service to trying to get it... or we know and believe that we are loved and we do everything we do in service to the love we have. GIVING AWAY the love that we have. Because that's what love is; love is giving. Giving everything we have and everything we are. So, stay with me. A life in service to love... is a life in service to each other. Laying our lives down for our friends (with the understanding that we destroy our enemies by making them our friends. We have friends, and friends that don't know they're our friends yet). Let me quote some red letters here. "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28 NLT). We think "living the good life" is all about getting others to do stuff for us. But the truth of the matter is, living the good life is all about doing things for others! I can tell you with absolute certainly, from personal experience, that I have never been so happy as when I did something nice for someone. And while doing big things is pretty awesome, don't sleep on the small stuff. Because even though it might seem small to you, it might be huge to the other person. Just the other day at the store some lady walked past me and dropped a twenty dollar bill. I picked that bad boy up, chased her down, and returned it to her. And who knows? Maybe she had a bunch more where that came from and wouldn't even have missed it. But then again, maybe without that twenty bucks she wasn't buying groceries anymore. The point is, you were not called to change THE world, but even a random act of kindness can change SOMEONE'S whole world. So don't worry about what, specifically, you're doing. Just make sure that its in service to love. Live your life fearlessly. Love no matter who, or what, or where, or when!