What will your story be??

So much happens in life, that sometimes, we just have to sit back and look at the picture as a whole and try and sort it all out. When I look back over my life, I can see where a certain decision led to a certain lifestyle, or a certain occurrence in my life. It's neat to be able to look back on it all and understand why certain things happened in our lives.

I find it's interesting that each one of us has a story to tell. A story that one day we will share with our grandchildren or anyone else that will listen. Some of us will have stories of joy, sadness, or contentment. Others will tell stories of triumph, rivalry, or struggles. But regardless, we all have a story to tell.

I was chatting with an elderly man today who only two weeks ago lost his wife. He said to me:

"My mother, she was a great cook, and.... then I married my wife, she too was a great cook, and we were married for 67 years, and now, I don't want to eat. But my friend told me I have to eat, he said you too will die if you don't eat, so I'm going to eat."

This little line, got me to thinking. I feel like he paralleled eating to life. His mother, she gave him life, his wife, she helped him live it, and now without her, he doesn't really feel like living, but he knows he needs to live, and so he will do it, until his time is up. Is there more to life than loving someone enough to give them life. I don't think we fall in love for ourselves. We fall in love so that we can help someone else be all they can be, and I think that if we go into a relationship thinking that we are going to get something out of it, we will never ever feel fulfilled.

It is like that too with our relationship with God. If we go into our relationship with God thinking about what we will get out of it, what do we gain?? I struggle with Christians who say they only became Christians so they could get into heaven. I don't think Christianity is about heaven at all. Heaven is the reward for those who live righteous lives, those who truly try to be Christ-like. Christ did not come into the world to see how much he could gain by coming into the world, instead he came into the world to lose everything, his dignity, his pride, he even died and took on all the sin of the world, just for us. He died for us, so that we may be free.

I think that if we all took on this selfless attitude when relating with others, not only will we have better relationships, but we will gain everything, Christ will look at us and say "well done my good and faithful servant!" Don't you want to hear those words??? I know I do.