The Meaning of Life

I already posted this as a note on facebook, but I'm going to post it here too...

Ever since I moved out, my mom has found it necessary to give me all of her old Time Magazines after she reads them. (I'm not sure why... I didn't really read them when I lived at home either.) But the most recent magazine had a section called "Time Health - The Battle for Global Health" that caught my eye. It featured a photo of a mother from Africa nursing her malaria infected infant. The section includes a handful of pages about the malaria plague that is killing many people in developing countries, especially those in Africa. It summarizes the horrific statistics of malaria victims, as well as some of the newest treatments that can withstand the long journeys and harsh environments of many countries.

Needless to say, I was excited to see a magazine as big as Time giving so much attention to a global issue like malaria. However, the thing that got my attention most was a small section of the feature entitled "The Unlikely Leader." Ray Chambers, a 67 year old man and former businessman, is leading the fight against malaria. (Apparently he's pretty well-known, but I had to look him up on Wiki (: ) The most interesting part is what Chambers says about his own involvement in the fight. You see, Ray Chambers came up with the concept of a leveraged buyout, a concept which made him "fabulously rich - but not happy" (Time Magazine). In 1987, he visited an inner-city youth project, where he offered to pay the college tuition of more than 1,000 teenagers "if they stayed the path." According to Chambers, that made him feel great. So what did he do? This incredibly rich and successful man "closed his investment firm and became a philanthropist, giving away $50 million" within the next 4 years. Recently, Chambers started Malaria No More after being inspired by children in Mozambique who died after suffering from "malarial comas."

The thing that I find most interesting about this story of Ray Chambers is the fact that he found no happiness in wealth and success. Furthermore, the thing he finds his fulfillment in is giving away money, helping disadvantaged teens, and fighting a global epidemic as a full-time job. Although they probably didn't mean to, the authors of this little article have captured something that so many people are searching for. Christ talks about it in Luke 9. "Then he said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?'"

When is the last time that we, even as Christians, have tried to live in order to deny ourselves? That isn't the American way. But it's what we were created to do. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." God has a plan for you and I to change the world we live in - and that's not to sound cheesy, it's what God's Word says. We were meant to be people who serve God by serving others. This will likely call for blood, sweat, and tears - literally. But, just as Ray Chambers found true happiness in denying himself and helping those in need, we too will find great joy and fulfillment as we serve our purpose. Only when we live a life of obedience, service, and sacrificial love will we truly find the meaning of life as a child of the King.

Surely We Can Change - David Crowder Band

And the problem is this

We were bought with a kiss

But the cheek still turned

Even when it wasn’t hit

And I don’t know

What to do with a love like that

And I don’t know

How to be a love like that

When all the love in the world

Is right here among us

And hatred too

So we must choose what our hands will do

Where there is pain

Let there be grace

Where there is suffering

Bring serenity

For those afraid

Help them be brave

Where there is misery

Bring expectancy

And surely we can change, surely we can change

Something

And the problem it seems

Is with you and me

Not the Love who came

To repair everything

And I don't know what to do with a love like that

And I don't know how to be a love like that