how are you livin'

I have been thinking a lot these days about the power of living beyond yourself. Most people do not live beyond themselves. Even when they are doing something for someone else often they do it because it makes them feel good, look good, or because if they do not they are afraid they will not appear as caring. In the end, truly living beyond ourself is something that is not natural but expected by God if we are going to be Christ followers. It takes a lot of work.

I heard a minister say recently that God will not comfort you to make you comfortable but to help you learn how to be a comforter. I love that and I think that is so right. We tend to think that God is up there for us, doing things for us, so that we can have a great and comfortable life. We tend to see God as doing things in, around, and for us and the end of those things is a better life for us.

The theme of the New Testament is that God is at work in, around, and for you for the purpose of creating his character in you so that you can become an influence upon others. God's end goal is to prepare you to live beyond yourself, it is to make you an influence.

Everything you are in, a part of, every encounter you have, and every person you meet is something God will use to shape you if you let him. Being schooled by God is no easy task and the sign that you are progressing is not by the comfort you have but by the passion you have to live beyond yourself.

The best example of what living beyond yourself looks like at its best is found on a hill, 2000 years ago, on a wooden tree called a cross. That is not a picture of a comfortable life but of a life lived well.