There’s More to Life Than Just Living It, It’s in Giving It
So I’ve been musing over the theme for Kofi Nkrumah Music’s Affect Your World concert from last year, and it got me pondering a lot over service, being a blessing to others and influence. I put this together and I pray it blesses you.
Each one of us desires to live our best life.While living our ‘best life’ may mean different things for every individual, a ubiquitous truth remains:
Identifying a need in someone’s life and making a move to meet that need is truly rewarding.
We definitely cannot deny the beguiling nature of getting and grasping more for ourselves, because each of us, to an extent, has a voracious appetite for everything that makes us feel good about ourselves and makes life more comfortable and desirable for us.
If we are not careful to pause, however, and evaluate ourselves periodically, we are likely to keep feeding our narcissistic nature and morph into self-centered monsters, insouciant to our immediate surroundings.
It’s OK to live or work towards living our best lives, but we must remember that an important piece to the ‘best life’ puzzle is to be a blessing to other people even in the smallest ways we can think of.
God allows us to have needs because he has also made provision for those needs to be met through the wisdom, resources, gifts, blessings and skills he has placed in people. And no one is left out, we each have something unique to offer.
I write from a Christian perspective, where love for God is extrapolated to love for your neighbor. In practical terms, many of us are guilty of being too busy professing our love for God and ignoring the rudimentary task of seeking the welfare of the person next to us. If we were intentional about seeking opportunities to bless each other with what God has graced us with, we would inadvertently be approaching God’s ideals for the world He created.
And pleeeeease, can we not limit this to the clichéd giving out of food and [used] clothes to the needy? These are great acts of service we must keep at, but if we are keen-eyed enough we will find so many other needs beyond food and clothes waiting to be met:
Can you talk to the cleaner in your office about his long-term goals for life and spur him on? Can you befriend that teenager with identity issues and become her mentor? Invest your time in the young person who needs career guidance?
Don’t look too far, someone needs to hear your story so they don’t give up, people need encouragement, hope to cling on to in desperate times, people need SALVATION!
people need salvation
Someone needs a shoulder to cry on; a mother/father figure; a listening ear; a prayer partner; a friend; an honest opinion. Teach someone a skill you’ve acquired; go the extra mile as you serve your clients, customers or patients. The elderly need love, care and attention…
This list is definitely not exhaustive, and these things may seem insignificant, but they may go a long way to make a difference in someone’s life. Go and be a blessing to someone, don’t just live your life, give it! You just may be God’s answer to someone’s need.
don’t just live your life, give it
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
1 Peter 4:10 NIV
“I alone cannot change the world but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”- Mother Theresa
About the Author
Dr. Ruth Boateng-Mireku is a wonderful member of CYI, who fellowships with Ahavah Dome. She currently serves as the Divas Head of the branch, leading our young women to pursue God faithfully. By day, she is an amazing dentist (evidenced by that 10/10 smile).
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