Contentment, Love, Honesty
As ambassadors of a Green V worldview, there are three things we know to be true about our lives: We cannot die All things work together for good All things are ours Given those truths, how then shall we live?
What if you can’t die and all things are yours? There is no longer any reason to fear and there is no longer any need to get anything you don’t already have. Now what?
When I asked students this question, some were excited about being free to love others. Some students expressed a mixture of selfish, material interests with concern for others. Some students were lost in a sea of selfish, materialistic desires. This exercise allowed students to consider where they were in regard to worldviews. Where are you?
If we can’t die and all things are ours (which the New Testament clearly states), what else is there to do but love and care for others? The fascinating dynamic of love is that the more you give it away, the more of it there is, just like the Word of God that expresses and conveys God’s love to us. Being a steward of the life God gives us—life that is exceedingly abundantly beyond all we could think or ask (Ephesians 3:20)—sets us free to discover that God’s creation is the best of all possible worlds and that God really does make all things work together for good. We are free to abandon our negative opinions and judgments that rob us of joy. We are free to engage each moment as students and detectives, knowing that our life is safe and provided for, especially as we look for the best way to employ it for the care of others. Knowing of God’s care for us keeps us humble and thus alert to and grateful for honesty about our dependence on God and our interdependence on one another. It keeps us joyful as gratitude for all things grows.