“If you try to keep your life for yourself, you’re going to lose it but if you give up your life for my sake, and for the sake of the good news, you will find true life.” Matthew 16:5
You are going to give your life for something. The question is are you going to give your life for the right thing? How much is it going to matter in eternity? How much is it going to matter forever? When you die is it going to matter at all?
Everybody I know is trying to figure out how to live longer. That is not the real issue. It is not how long you live. at matters, it’s how you live that matters. I think of Lake Bozman who passed away at the early age of eight. He was diagnosed with leukemia at five years old. His three-year battle with cancer inspired so many people. His love for life inspired those who were fighting cancer to keep going. His love for life inspired others who were going through challenging times to keep going and never give up. His love for life inspired his church family at Piedmont.
Every year at Piedmont we do two blood drives in honor of Lake. I love it when I see all the Piedmont Church family members come and give blood. I did not get to know Lake all that well before he passed away. I do know that up until the Lake Bozman blood drives at Piedmont, I had only given blood once. I gave blood in college to help my fraternity win Greek Week at Morehead State. I gladly now give double reds every time because of Lake.
Proverbs 30:20 reads, “Sometimes it takes a painful situation to get you to change.”
All of us can raise our hand to agree with that verse. Losing my dad so early in my life was a painful experience that changed me forever. I learned that it is not the duration of your life that matters but the donation of it that counts. People remember givers not takers.
1 Corinthians 15:58 reads, “Keep busy in your work for the Lord since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever without value.”
Can you say that about everything you are doing? No. A lot of what you and I do is of no value in the long term. But nothing you do in the Lord’s work is ever without value.