Meaning of Life part 4
This is where the rubber meets the road. If the meaning of life is love--and it is!--then life really isn't about you. Or rather, it isn't about what you can do for you. It's about others. It's about what you can do for others. True happiness comes from making others happy. It's not about outside coming in. It's not about "getting" anything. It's about inside coming out. It's about giving (sharing) what we've got. That's why it's so important to know what we've got. And what we've got... is everything. Jesus did it all so we could get it all. We have been blessed with all Spiritual blessings. We have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. But we weren't blessed just so that we could be blessed. There IS an aspect of this. Proverbs 10:22 tells us, "The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." There's this idea out there where Christians are supposed to be poor. But a poverty mentality doesn't exactly line up with the mentality of a Son who knows that His Father loves Him and has given all things into His hand. When Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give it to the poor, He wasn't making a sweeping statement of how we are all supposed to live. He was dealing with the rich young ruler's heart. Guys... it's ok to have stuff. The problem comes when stuff has you. That was the rich young ruler's problem. He was more interested in stuff then in helping people. We are blessed... to be a blessing. Genesis 12:2 says it like this, "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." You can't give what you don't have. So if you have this poverty mentality... if you're always coming from a place of lack... trying to get things instead of receiving what you've already been given... then you spend your life chasing it instead of enjoying it. To love is to give. To live is to love. To live is to give. Isn't it interesting that Jesus spoke of losing your life in order to gain it? To lay down your life for your friends? That's what life is really all about. It's not about selfishness. It's about selflessness. It's not about taking, or getting, it's about giving. It's not about you, it's about others. But here's the really glorious part: When you give... that's when you receive! When you share something with someone, that's when it becomes real. Life becomes real life when it's shared. You truly receive love when you release it. Happiness doesn't come from what you get. It comes from what you give. God gave us everything we could ever need when (out of His love for us) He gave us His Son--transformed us into His Son--now we have it all. We have no lack because our God has not lack. Love never fails. So if you want to really understand the meaning of life you have to stop trying to get and you have to start giving what you've got!