Depth of Life
Life has still another dimension to be considered before we can fully understand what composes More Abundant Living. We refer to its depth.
Abundant living requires much more than the normal functioning of all the body’s organs. A person may be a perfect physical “specimen” and in excellent health as measured by all the tests the doctor can order. Yet the may be “dead” in his influence with his family, in his participation in church affairs, in his cooperation with community enterprise, and in his prospects for accomplishment in life.
Superficial lives are concerned only with the pleasures of the moment and personal welfare. “My wishes,” says such an individual, “take priority over the opportunities to render service to mankind.” But the person with a mission in life, with a goal to reach, with a service to render—that person’s life has depth. When Christ was on earth, a lawyer asked Him, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” this was equivalent to asking, What is the most important consideration in life?
Christ’s response was the same, I believe, that he would give to the question, how can a person make his life deeper and more meaningful? He answered, “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these tow commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40.
Love, then, is the magic factor which gives depth to one’s life. Love to God, demonstrated by living with a clear conscience, and love to man, manifested in rendering service to humanity, completes the electric circuit, s it were, vitalizing all of life’s activities. This is the magic of More Abundant Living, for when life has depth, it will have, as a consequences, greater breadth and greater length.
As will be evident in the chapters that follow, the human body is designed for activity. It thrives beast when its muscles are in action, when the blood circulates briskly, when the movement of air in the lungs provides for the rapid and abundant exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, and when the brain is actively concerned with pleasant and stimulating thoughts and challenged with a purpose to live for.
Your health will be better and the dimensions of your life greater when you deliberately provide for activity rather than wasteful leisure. And what is more rewarding than to spend one’s energies in some absorbing enterprise intended to benefit humanity? Such activity does not deplete one’s reserve of vital energy. Rather it has a vitalizing influence on one’s brain and, thus, on all the organs of the body. This kind of activity, tempered with moderation, brings as its reward More Abundant Living.
Related Posts :
The wording suggests that the emphasis will be on health rather than on disease. And this is intentional. But a coin has two sides, and it ...
Every person wants to be happy. Happiness is the universal goal of mankind. But merely wanting to be happy does not make one so. Happiness is not ...
To a young person in love, life lived in superlatives the entire personality seems charged with emotion. Even the ordinary phases of life seem mo ...
Thus far we have been speaking of the length of life as though this were the all important. If only the years during which a person’s ...
The average person thinks of mental illness as mysterious. Ask him what it is and he will probably say, “Mental illness is what makes a pers ...
Category: Health Care
About the Author (Author Profile)
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Comments (0)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
There are no comments yet. Why not be the first to speak your mind.