“What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” ― Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD)

My faith teaches me that the way to really experience life is to live as a dead man walking. When that happens as a habit, all kinds of disappointments and angst don’t drive me so nuts as I’ve been lately. Here’s what I notice happens (and doesn’t):

• Less lonely, looking outward, not inward (I put names of others on my mirrors)
• MY feelings don’t get bent out of shape
• Not thinking about getting, it’s about giving
• How to be a channel of blessing, not a stock tank, saving up
• Stop talking about beliefs, start doing ’em
• When dead, that means the whole resume has to go (get it?)

“Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it.” – C. S. Lewis

I’m living in a culture that surrounds me with a selfish ethic. A marketplace of need is necessary to drive an economy of more and more. So much time shopping for the au courant fashions, downloading the most popular music, visiting the new cool restaurant. Trying to convince me that what I want is what I need.

The more I think about it, the more I realize I’m thinking about me waaaay too much. Certain to me too unhappy. What about… Trying to figure out how to solve the problem of that student who’s joined the class weeks late because of some sort of financial problem, who’s stuck sitting on the back row, squinting to see the screen, taking notes on an itty-bitty notepad, failing the open-note quiz…what can I do to fix some of THAT? Doing more of THAT is how I live a better life. Without even thinking about it.

“Do you often feel like parched ground, unable to produce anything worthwhile? I do. When I am in need of refreshment, it isn’t easy to think of the needs of others. But I have found that if, instead of praying for my own comfort and satisfaction, I ask the Lord to enable me to give to others, an amazing thing often happens – I find my own needs wonderfully met. Refreshment comes in ways I would never have thought of, both for others, and then, incidentally, for myself.” ― Elisabeth Elliot