Stay Alive All Your Life

[bluidkiti]

"Stay Alive All Your Life"

“Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.” — II Thessalonians 3:13 (NRSV)

“So what are you going to do now?” It’s a question that is asked of high school students across the country especially as they get closer to graduation. One of the quick, go with you everywhere pieces of advice that was thrown at me when I was asked this question (low, those many years ago) was that ‘when you do what you love, you don’t have to work a day in your life’. I’m pretty sure that when I first heard that I nodded my head, smiled, and then promptly forgot what I had been told. After all, I was graduating from high school: I knew everything!

However, as I stand here more than a few years removed from those days of (perceived) invincibility, those words have come back to me and I say, “the people who offered that advice were very wise.” Whether they recognized it or not, what they were actually doing was articulating one of the steps that each of us can take in order to stay alive all our life.

God has blessed each one of us with a unique combination of interests, talents, and skills. It is when we recognize these blessings and begin to put them to use in how we make a living that work is transformed into an opportunity to receive the grace of God and when we do that, well, that’s when you’re able to truly live your entire life. I have known way too many people who are so dissatisfied with their jobs that it has tore them down and made them feel horrible about themselves. One of the ties between each of these people is that all of them were working for the wrong reasons: some worked for the money, others for the power, still others to try and prove themselves to the world. They were working for the wrong reasons and their lives suffered.

What they needed to do instead was look to God and see the skill set that the Divine had granted them. If they had done this they would have discovered the things they were passionate about, the things that they loved to do, and in making that discovery realized that ‘work’ was no longer ‘work’ but the next avenue through which they could be blessed by God and be a blessing to the world. It is in that revelation that each of us can stay alive our whole life long.

What do you love to do? The answer to that question will ultimately lead you to the fulfilling life that you were looking for all along!

Glorious Creator, You have blessed us in so many ways! Help us to cherish these blessings by using them. Lord, let it be so. Amen.


“Prayerful Living”