Chapter 2 – Part 2: You Are Not An Accident
Sometimes it’s very hard to understand that God does have a plan for our lives. Especially when everything seems to be going wrong. When life is just so tough just getting up in the morning is a major event. Yet,
“there is a God who made you for a reason, and your life has profound meaning! We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point for our lives.”
That was one of the hardest things for me to learn. That my life has “profound meaning,” the very word profound means deep, weighty, insightful, intense, well you get my point. But you say how can my life have any meaning at all, “look at me. Look where I am. Look what I’ve done”. And yet as I’ve said many times before if we allow it God can use every single circumstance in our life to build us into better people and to have a deep positive influence on those around us. But first we, you and I have to allow him to work in our lives. Romans 8: 28 teaches us that, “all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.”
It’s Not About You
It all goes back to the first sentence in the first chapter of the book, “it’s not about you.” Once we accept that it is not about us we can start changing our lives. Making it about other people takes the focus off of us and what we’ve done, how we feel about ourselves and puts that focus on bettering other people by using our own experiences.
We live in a very selfish, self-centered world. We’ve made it all about ourselves. When we change that paradigm and make it all about others our life changes. We no longer worry about how we feel about our own personal needs. When we do that we do things differently. We consider others first ourselves last. This is not to say that we become martyrs. It just means that we are not focused totally on our own wants, wishes, desires in other words we have gotten rid of the great ME and replaced it with the needs of the people that mean the most to us and after a while, as we grow the needs of others.
How do we start to change from being self-centered to considering others? One way is by having a partner or partners who hold each other accountable. You meet maybe once a week to discuss your progress and your partners hold you accountable for your actions and you hold them accountable for their actions. It is a trusting partnership, one in which each member offers encouragement and while holding each other accountable.
Author
Sgt. Allen Lynch
Allen Lynch is a former United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Vietnam War.Find Healing Resources