When we put only ourselves first, nothing good ever comes of it. Especially when we allow our comfort to determine the decision to leave another out in the cold or to join them. I need to be after helping others constantly. My work, all that I do, should hold at it’s core the service for other people.
Others are more important than ourselves.
There’s a verse in the Bible that says, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” That’s very powerful. The greatest love of all is to lay down your life for the life of your friends. You don’t have to be a God person to get behind something like that.
In dying to ourselves, we never feel more alive.
If we really think about that verse, put yourself in the thought of feeling incredible pangs of hunger. You have only an extremely small portion of food, that fits in your hand. Just before you eat it, your friend walks in. You see that your friend also hasn’t eaten. You feel that movement in your heart that shakes your foundation greater than a rumbling belly. Without hesitation, you give your friend the food. Love brings a fullness greater than any sustenance we can put in our stomachs.
A man that I am very fortunate to call a friend, Tim Goad, worked along-side Zig Ziglar for twenty-five years. If you don’t know who Zig Ziglar is, he essentially pioneered motivational speaking. And if you don’t know who Tim Goad is, you should get to know him as well. One of Zig’s most famous quotes is, “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”
There is a lot to that short statement.
Why do people chase their dreams? In order to be happy. What does it mean to be happy? Well, to have a sense of joy and fulfillment that’s present within their hearts. Sounds selfish. You’ll find that as you’re walking toward that which you love, it is designed to affect those around you in a way that very much looks like service. You just have to take those brave steps in the direction of your heart.
I asked my friend what one major thing was that he picked up working with Zig. “Help others get what they want,” was his answer.
When you see and meet people that are living lives that you envision yourself living, from traveling the world to speaking onstage, you really do your best to listen to what they have to say. It always seems so overly complicated and complex to achieve living a life of meaning, dreams, and fulfillment. Like some Einsteinian theory of time and space. But as you get close to people that are living those lives, you find that what they do is rooted in very simple practices. Rather, a very simple practice. Love other people. Serve other people. Speak life and believe life into other people.
In searching our hearts, we find that it’s in lifting other hearts that our own hearts are elevated.
“You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”
All that any of us truly want in life is love and fulfillment. This is the path to that end. Though, it’s never an end. It’s a way of living.
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