Throughout our lives we are constantly striving towards success. This success may take on many forms, but it appears that we are often living for a goal in our lives to achieve. For some this goal is money, knowledge, amount of people helped, and so on. We live in a success-driven world where we feel we need to accomplish so many things. This success-driven mentality can transfer into our Christian walk as well. We all have our plans for living a fulfilled life. I have found that personally I am someone who has the strength known as positivity. I know this strength can be and is a beautiful asset, however it can also cause one to be a bit too idealistic. In this idealism I have found there are lists of goals that I want to pursue. I have developed many passions for knowledge and serving others to which I am constantly trying to find new ways to utilize them. As I strive to learn and apply this knowledge in this success-driven world, I have found that it is easy to succumb to overworking if you are not properly balanced. Today as I was reading Scripture, I stumbled upon a great wake up call for this lifestyle.
"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing." -1 Corinthians 13:1-3
No matter how good our intentions may be, every thing we do must be based in love. Success can only go so far. Success does not sustain us and did not create us. God is love and so in order to live the fulfilled life we desire, we must do all things in love. Although we celebrate love on February 14th, it is not something that should be kept exclusively on that day. The time of love is weekly, daily, hourly, and by the minute. The time of love is here and now. What we do in this world ultimately does not matter without love. Without a community to share it with.Without love we are machines.
These are just simple thoughts from the dust as we approach Hallmark/America's Commercialized Holiday known as "Valentines Day".
No comments:
Post a Comment