Pres. John F. Kennedy once said something to our country that was one of the best things any president ever said to our country. He is famous for these words and I'm sure you all have heard them before: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." In that one sentence, Pres. Kennedy hit upon a hugely important principle of how to live well in this world. There are two ways to live: one is the selfish way, in which we only regard our own wishes in life. We look to others to do for us what we want them to do, and if they don't do it, then we become bitter and resentful. We become unhappy and even angry. Borrowing from modern political lingo, we can call this the entitlement mentality. I remember riding on a bus one day in SC and a young man said, with resentment in his expression, "What has this country ever done for me!" Ha! That's the entitlement mentality in all its self-centered misery.
The other way to live is the way of love. If you love people, you aren't thinking about whether or not they are doing the things for you that you want them to do; you seek to give them room in your regard; you want to know what they want and need, and then, instead of being all miserable because people aren't doing what you want, you can experience the happiness of generosity, giving to them what they need or want, and their happiness becomes your happiness. It's a cycle of happiness that starts with love, a self-less love, a love that wants to give instead of get.
The reason that the way of love brings more happiness and health into our lives than the entitlement mentality is because that is the way the God of this universe has made us to work. We are created in his image and he is a God of love. God is not sitting in heaven, bitter because you are not doing for him what he wants you to do for him. He's not thinking that way at all. He's thinking about what He can do for you; He loves you. He is the God that, instead of resenting us and thinking, "Well, if they are going to act that way and not notice me and not appreciate me, and not please me, then I'm just not going to have anything to do with them," and go run to his room in heaven and slam his door at us. No! When we did not love Him, He loved us anyway, and He loved us so much that He gave His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross and rise from the dead that we might be rescued from the death of self-centeredness, of entitlement thinking, and have a new live of love and happiness with Him.
Do you see how important your thoughts about God are? If you don't think about God rightly, you cannot see life rightly. Sadly, we often think God is like us. He's just as disappointed in us as we are disappointed with everybody in our lives and he doesn't love us anymore than we love everybody else. It's no wonder we can be so miserable, if that's the kind of God we have.
(To be continued)
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