So easily am I distracted from living life….
Webster defines living as, "having life"…..Simple, to live is to have life. How am I so distracted from living life/having life?
I am a senior Outdoor Education major at GC&SU, graduating this week 🙂 holla, and one of the many things we have talked about is how to read participants. Majority of the time if we, as leaders, are feeling a certain way tired, hungry, hot, cold, etc; many of our participants are feeling the same exact thing. So I am going to assume that there are many people just like me who are so easily distracted from living life.
But how? Many of us have everything we need to survive and many of us have some of those wants that we don't necessarily need to function, but make life more luxurious. So how can we not live life? How can we not be satisfied? How can we be so distracted from living/having life?
For the 23 short years I have been on this earth I have been in school. I am in a routine of going to school Monday through Friday, studying for test & quizzes, having a part-time job, still having little to no money, hanging with friends at all hours of the day and night, cooking meals, going out to eat, playing sports, making road trips, forgetting to turn in assignments, making mistakes, hopefully learning from those mistakes, spending time with family, laughing, going through heartaches, getting over heartaches, constantly evaluating the direction of my life, building new relationships, rekindling old relationships…you know….living life…..having life…..right? How come I can’t find complete satisfaction in living life then?
So often we let all of the things in our life define who we are. I have noticed growing up how most casual conversations go. There a few questions we run through as if it were a check-off list. It most often starts with, what are you doing in life? Where are you in school? What are you studying? What do you plan to do with what you’re studying? Who are you dating?
After years of hearing these questions, many of which I don’t have a great answer for, I've realized how easily it is for me to define myself with those answers. I am Outdoor Education student, about to graduate, going on the world race in July, no idea if I’ll ever use my degree directly in my line of work, don’t know what I’ll do when I get back, I have no significant other.
I see how these questions have dawned on me and my peers. I’ve seen how much time people think about the answer to these questions. Why do we need to have our lives in complete order? We need to declare a major going in to college, we need to know what we want to do with the rest of our lives, we need to find someone to be with….why? Because that’s what living is all about…right? These things define us…right? We fall into this lie that once we do a certain thing then everything will be in order and everything will make sense. If I just declare a major then I will be ok, I’ll have direction. I’ll be ok once I know what job I want to do the rest of my life. Once I get a job with lots of money I’ll be happy. Once I find a significant other I’ll be completely satisfied. Once I buy a nicer car life will be great. If I just get married there won’t be any more complications. If we just have a baby we will be able to rekindle our love. If I can just buy a bigger house I’ll be happier. If I can just make more money I’ll be able to buy more things and everything will be easier and happier in life. It’s a vicious cycle with no end in sight.
If this is what life is all about why is depression so prevalent in the United States. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) depression affects nearly 24 million Americans 18 and older every year, notice that doesn’t include people under 18. Over 34,000 people in the U.S. die by suicide each year. If we were truly satisfied with our "check-off" lives why would there be so many people affected by depression? Why would suicide take so many lives?
There has to be something more than just a check-off list! I can’t be doing these things to get to the next stage in life only to be trying to attain the next stage. I can’t believe that once I complete college, get a job, get married, have kids, have a house, have a nice car, have a dog, have my life “in order” that I will be completely satisfied with life! I won’t believe that life is a big check-off list.
We get so busy with what we think living life means that we aren’t living at all! We get so caught up in the trivial things of life that we lose sight of why we live, why we do the things we do! We completely forget why we live and what we live for!
Psalm62,63,89; Matthew 16: 24-28; 22: 34-40; 28: 16-20; Mark 16: 15-18; John 5: 24-30; 7: 37-39; Romans 5: 1-5; 6: 23; Ephesians 2; Philippians 3: 8-9; 2 Timothy 1: 7; James 4:8, Read the Sermon on the Mount!
We live to praise and worship our God! We live to let God use us to bring light unto a darkened world. We live to love Him with everything and then to love our neighbor as our self (Matthew 22: 37-40).
Matthew 6: 33-34 tells us to seek God’s kingdom and everything else will be added unto us. It tells us to not worry about tomorrow for each day has enough trouble of its own.
We live because He has chosen us, He has freed us from our sin, because He loves us! His grace is never ending, His love is overwhelming, He knows us better than we know ourselves!
So where does that put things like college, relationships, jobs, buying a car, a house, getting a raise, getting married, having kids? Are these things trivial? Are they not important? These things are very important! But they shouldn’t take precedence over your relationship with your Savior. Choosing someone to marry is the second most important decision you will make in your life, after accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. College is usually the place you find yourself and are able to make a name for yourself. A job can be something that you have a future in and you hope to be able to support not only yourself but a family. Buying a house or a car are both hug expenses and your safety/ your families safety are in direct line with these two things. All of these things are very important decisions in life but the shouldn't be the defining things of your life.
The reason we do things in life shouldn’t be to meet a status quo. We should do them out of self-discipline and reverence to our Lord. Everything we do in life should bring praise to our Lord. Whether that’s college, a certain job, a marriage, having children, accepting a raise. These things should be done with the Lord leading them.
Our religion is very simple. Jesus told us the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:37-40. We continually make it a lot more complicated than it should be. There are many different topics and the bible gets us to go in deeper into our faith and understanding. But, if you miss Matthew 22:37-40 you’ve missed one of the most critical parts.
You’ve missed why we live our lives. You’ve missed the direction God has given you for your life. You’ve missed the chance to truly live! Our religion isn’t about condemning people. It’s not about being a snobby, uptight community. It’s about loving the unloved, reaching the unreached, endless forgiveness, limitless grace, living as Jesus instructed us.
When we are able to do what Matthew 16: 25 says we are able to truly live! It says when we die to ourselves for Jesus we find life in Him!
So how to I make the stresses of life go away? How do I not think about what I am going to do in life, who I will marry, what kind of job I want, what college to go to, what to major in? You don’t stop thinking about that stuff. Those are things that are a part of life. Those are all very important decisions. It is important to spend time with family, building relationships, taking road trips, learning from mistakes, cooking food, going out to eat, laughing, going through heartaches, getting over heartaches, playing sports, doing things you enjoy and love.
But in everything you do…everything…do it for the Lord. Put Him first, live for Him. Lose your life for Him and you will find life!
Live simple and let the Lord lead you! For when you do that you have life, you slow down, you are able to define yourself in Him and not by what society defines you as. You’re able to forgive, to love, to show grace and mercy. You are able to truly be a follower of Christ and people will be drawn to Him!
