LIVING FOR OTHERS

“Through love serve one another.” Gal 5:13 NKJV

Jacques Cousteau, the famous French explorer, said, “If a man for whatever reason has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.” Jesus lived that way. He said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (Jn 10:11 NKJV). To be like Him, you must live for something greater than your own interests. In his book Half Time: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance, author Bob Buford says, “The first half of life has to do with getting and gaining, learning and earning. The second half is more risky because it has to do with living beyond the immediate.” By that he means living for a cause greater than yourself, and for others beyond yourself. The great men and women in Scripture were not great because of what they earned and owned; they were great because they gave themselves to people and causes that lived beyond them. Their dream was to do something that benefited others. Only a rare minority of people are able to hold closely to their dream to make a difference, and are willing to give up everything to make that dream come true. Of people like that it will never be said that when they died, it was as though they never lived. Their dream lives on after them, because they lived for others. And it was in living for others and not for self that they found their greatest joy and fulfillment. The poet wrote: “Others, Lord, yes others; Let this my motto be. Help me to live for others, that I may live for Thee.”

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