Live the Important
I want to live out the important things in life and avoid the trivial.
Most of us would probably agree with that statement, but few of us really ever get around to doing it. First, we don’t know what is “the important.” Is it family, church, work, health, service, or some other value? The answer may be that it is all of these and none of these. There are many important things we should be doing with our families, for example. However, there are many things we do with our families that are trivial and of lesser value. Church has the potential for engaging us in the most important things of life. Unfortunately, though, it more often shackles us to frivolous business that makes little difference. The same is true for our work, health, and benevolent service. If I truly want to live out the important things in life, then I need to know what is important.
Second, we don’t always recognize the trivial pursuits of our lives. The trivial may look like “the important” on the outside, but it usually leaves us empty, feeling like we are not making much of a difference. Rather than reflecting on whether an activity is really important and worth continuing, we are more likely to blindly engage in the insignificant. We mistakenly think that as long as we are busy we must be doing some good.
We engage in the trivial perhaps because we don’t know what else to do. Alternatively, we may be listening uncritically to voices that lie to us about how important an activity is. Regardless, we find ourselves so busy with trivialities that we bypass the important. The inertia of our world is toward the trivial and away from the important, in favor of the superficial and against the profound.
When I am looking for answers about how to live my life, I turn to scripture. So it is there that I go to find out what is “the important.” In the Gospel of Mark a Jewish teacher of the Law asks Jesus which is the most important commandment. Jesus answers, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Then Jesus goes on to say the second most important commandment is like the first, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30)
There you have it. The most important things in life are to love God, love your neighbor and love yourself. All we have to do is live these things day in and day out. In doing so, you and I will avoid the trivial and engage in things that make a difference. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. First, what does it mean to love God? How does one really love his or her neighbor? How do we engage in self love that avoids selfishness?
If I truly want to live out the important things in life (which I do), I must reflect upon how to love. In the coming days, and perhaps weeks, in these blogs I want to pursue some of these answers for my own life. Perhaps they will benefit you as well. I encourage you to join me on this quest by doing your own reflecting and engaging in conversation through comments and emails.
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