One day a depressed woman jumped off a bridge into a river. Without thinking, a man standing nearby jumped in to save her. But ‘our hero’ suddenly remembered that he couldn’t swim, so he started thrashing around and screaming for help! Hearing his cries, the depressed woman swam to his rescue, hauled him out, administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and saved his life.
What happened? She found a need greater than her own, and in so doing she found a reason to live. Jesus said, ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies [to self-interest], it produces much grain.’ Christ had just finished saying, ‘Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing”‘ (Luke 12:22-23 NKJV).
Career success and material things cannot be your reason for living! You need a larger purpose, and God will give you one if you ask Him. Some of us are born knowing what God has called us to do in life; others discover it along the way. Some of us actually find it in our closing years. Indeed, some of us are awakened to it by tragedy and loss. What matters is that we find God’s purpose and pour ourselves into it.
Helen Keller wrote, ‘When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which God has opened for us.’ So, have you found your reason for living?
