I presided at a funeral on Friday for a woman whose family couldn't stop telling me what a gift her life was. It felt genuine as they shared memories of their time together and they recounted her simple ways sharing the joy of life and making them feel loved.
When I die I want people to be able to have those kinds of memories of my life. To make that happen my life needs to be a gift to them. The things I do need to bless others. The things I say need to be life affirming. The problem, however, is that a lot of what I say and do is not a gift to others. Much of what my life is about is making sure I am taken care of.
I suppose this happens because I think that life is about me. When I live as though life is all about me I take everything personally. I say something that I think is important and people don't respond the way I hope they will and I wonder what I did wrong. Someone is critical of something I say or believe and I write them off as uneducated or unable to see the truth.
I try to strike a balance between the negatives and positives but it just isn't possible.
When I live as though life is not about me, that's when my life becomes a gift to others. When my thoughts and ideas are given as a gift without regard to how they will be accepted it doesn't matter if they are rejected because I chose to give them. When people don't respond to something I did the way I imagined they might I don't have to be offended if I my actions were a gift.
If something is a true gift we give it for the joy of giving. Anything we give expecting a certain response is not a true gift.
Life is a gift. Give it away.
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