Have you found your reason of living?

A good reminder of what my life should be.

“...But if it dies...” John 12:24 NKJV


Have You Found Your Reason for Living?

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?

In loving memory of Uncle John

There are only a handful of people who come into your world, and touch your life in a dramatic fashion. Some of the people are just flickers of light during a long life, while others are a consistent glow through the years. Uncle John - I would term him as a consistent glow in my life since he’s always been around as far as I can remember. He’s a fellow church member, family friend as well as our reliable repairman.

I used to see him around a lot when I was younger because he would be the answer to everything that went wrong in my parents’ home. He was the first person we would call when something wasn’t working or a fixture addition was required. So it wasn’t strange that even after I got married, Uncle John continued to be the “answer” to everything that went physically wrong in the house be it a plumbing issue or a shift of built in cabinets or wiring repairs.

And there is a reason for this….out of about thousands of people that have the skill set to fix things or come up with practical household solutions, why is that I (as well as many others in this room tonight) have always called Uncle John?

For me, it is simply because he was trustworthy and reliable. I know that whenever I call, Uncle John would come and help me solve it. He would provide us with correct identification of the problem, choices of solutions at reasonable prices. We always left our house keys to him and went to work. And that may seem like something trivial to some. But to me, that speaks out qualities such as honesty and integrity. In all my years of knowing Uncle John, he has always been very mild tempered and pretty good natured.

I still remember when I was pregnant with my daughter - Uncle John told my husband that I had to be careful not to go smell cement as cement had a lot of bad chemicals which would badly affect the baby. So this man who was the handyman eventually became a personal family friend.

So tonight I stand here and have to be honest that it will be strange to live without having the ability to pick up the phone and call this reliable family friend ever again. Uncle John’s sudden passing saddens me greatly. However, I take heart to know that one day I will meet him again in heaven.