So here's the question of the day:
What are you living for?
Or who are you living for?
What is it? The thing that drives all you do.
Common things that people live for: fame, money, approval of others; exterior perfection; themselves, possessions, status, careers, thrills, adventure, the next high; sex, partying, power, beauty, youth, pleasure.
What do all those things have in common?
In the end none of them will matter. In the end, living for one or more of these things will cause regret. None of them actually are bad in themselves within the boundaries of God's ways -- if they happen to us, if they are a by-product of our lives rather than the goal they can bring a lightness, a happiness that adds to the joy we are called to live in.
Yet, if you are living for one of these things, the question is -- is it controlling you or are you controlling it?
The only "thing" we can pursue that will free us to be ourselves and to truly enjoy life is God. I write God not as a generic title but God as in Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Through God we can have healing relationships with God, ourselves and others. Through God we can love with abandon. Through God we can know we will be provided for no matter what happens in this life. Through God we can be content no matter what tragedy strikes.
We only have so much time on this earth. We don't know when our time will be finished. Do you really want to spend that limited time on things that will cause regret? If you only had today, what would you do? If you knew you were terminal promised only a few short weeks left, what would you do? Would you live differently? Would you be bolder in your relationships? Would you take risks in them in that you would share what is on your heart? Would you take time to attempt to heal broken friendships?
Most of us know someone who was taken suddenly from this life. That could be us. That might be us.
Live fully. Live honestly. Live loving God and other with abandon. That is the best way to live. Sometimes we make excuses because we see others who are Christians who don't appear to be that loving, that faithful, that forgiving. But using their lives as an excuse for ourselves to not pursue Christ is just that -- an excuse.
"For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf . . . Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation."
2 Corinathians 5:14-15, 18