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25,567.5 Days of Purpose
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Prologue
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first
commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the
prophets."
Jesus
According to Matthew,
Chapter 22, Verses 37-40
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Chapter One
The purpose of life is to matter. That's right --
the purpose of life is to matter that you live. Seeking
salvation? Matter.
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Chapter Two
To matter, you care. Again: the way to matter is to
care. Spelled L-O-V-E: care. It's as simple and as difficult as that. Simple
to know, difficult to do. But to make your life matter, you
must care.
Does that mean you simply, passively feel the warm and fuzzy sentiment of concern or affection or "care"?
No. Of course not. How
would that matter? What purpose would that serve?
Does
it mean, however, that
you behave in a manner by which you serve the welfare of others?
That is, care for others? You
know --
actually give food to a starving kid? Provide medicine
to an ill woman? Put a roof over the head of a freezing
family? And, right under your nose, give a kind word to your son, daughter, and spouse; brother,
sister, and parent? Or maybe perform a kind deed for each? Or does it mean that you do what's necessary to put that
kind of caring in motion?
Sure it does. Of course. Yes. That's what caring
means. And how hard is that? You start small, one little caring
event at a time, then evolve, grow, develop the habit. It's not as
if you have to save the whole
world in the next 20 minutes.
But be aware that caring can't happen at your whimsy. Not at your
convenience. Not, alas, for merely 40 days of purpose.
Your caring can't occur because it's
the workshop of the year or because it's the trendy program at
church this season. Actively caring throughout your entire
life --
caring for three score and ten years; caring for 25,567 and
a half days --
that's what matters. That's the purpose of life. Get
it? Savvy? Dig? Actually, willfully, materially caring. You know --
the doing of it. Routinely. Day in and day out.
Seems boring, sure, not very sexy or exciting. But reserve your
judgment. Give care a chance. Wait till you get in the swing
of it. See if the Spirit doesn't have its way with you. Wait till you're actually improving
another person's life, or even saving it, then see if you think it's a drag or if,
instead, it
rocks.
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Chapter Three
How do you care?
Please! You can't think of a million
ways to serve others? Brother, sister, that's the fun ot it! At last count it appeared that the
number of ways remained infinite. Think you
can come up with a few ideas out of all infinity? Finding those ways is the
important stuff of prayer, reflection, and meditation; of your
discussion groups and study groups, your fellowship and worship.
Discovering ways
to care is a means of
caring as well as a means to caring.
Jesus found a dandy way to care. He died on a cross for each of us.
Impressive. This is something we see clearly about Jesus' life: when he became a
human being, he actively cared for others while rattling around
Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. His life on earth mattered. It had purpose. Talk about an
example!
In the end, our very
purpose in life depends on whether or not we find ways of caring and
then willfully exercise them. Period. Everything else, outside the
church and in, is sizzle and glitz, Hollywood and Madison Avenue.
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Chapter Four
To summarize:
The purpose of life is to matter that you live.
Caring is what makes your life matter.
By actively, willfully caring, you matter.
Congratulations. Your life has purpose.
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Epilogue
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first
commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the
prophets."
Jesus
According to Matthew,
Chapter 22, Verses 37-40
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A.M.D.G.
Ad majorem Dei
gloriam -|- To the greater glory of God
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