Sunday, September 13, 2015

How To Save Your Life





My sister-in-law shared this video recently and it gnawed at my insides. Do you know what I mean? When you see or read or hear something that in your gut you know was meant for you--because you recognize something in yourself that shouldn't be there--something that needs to change. But it will require  work. And doing things that make you uncomfortable. And giving up your time, as busy as you already are.

Well, that was me while I watched this video. And I've noticed that when God is trying to send me a message, it is usually one that begins to reoccur often. I don't know if He has been sending those messages my way repeatedly for the past 30 years and I am just now seeing them, or if He is watching me and says to Himself "You're ready for this now Elin. Here it is."

So first it was this video. Then it was a conversation with a friend. Then a couple of opportunities to serve presented themselves--opportunities that were difficult and inconvenient. Then I got to know a woman who gives all of her time and life and self to take care of her handicapped daughter.

Then my mom shared this article with me.

It wasn't a wake-up call. It was an avalanche. But the message for me is crystal clear: Try to take every opportunity  to help and serve that is placed in your path. Stop rationalizing. Stop making excuses. Opportunities to serve are opportunities to grow and be lifted above and beyond your own capacities. God doesn't need us to serve each other. He is perfectly capable of taking care of every one of us. He is the one who knows of every sparrow that falls and "clothes the lilies of the field." He allows us to serve each other because of what it does for us. Letting us take care of each other is, I suppose, often how He takes care of us.

 "24 aThen said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him bdeny himself, and take up hisccross, and dfollow eme.
 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will alose his life for my sake shall bfind it." Matthew 16:24-25

I want to be like these people who so selflessly and wondrously give of themselves--and seem so much fuller and more whole because of it. Jesus Christ exemplified this perfectly. So I'm working on letting go of the things that don't really matter and trusting that His way is the only one that really does matter.

-elin
Who is feeling the Autumn in the air! And who has 2 more lengthy article for you to read on the above topic if you aren't all tuckered out yet: this and this

2 comments:

  1. you'll love this. i have watched it over and over again. so, so good.
    https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/sheri-patten-palmer_convenient-service/

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  2. The video and the article are both so powerful. What saints there are in the world! Thank you for causing me to seriously examine my own life.

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