This is the last installment of a 7 part series on Creating the Life You Love. Today we’re talking about the pinnacle of what it means to live a happy and fulfilled life—living a life for others. Hope you’ll tune in and if it’s helpful for you I hope you’ll share it with your friends. Much love!!
I forgot to include this in the podcast but it’s one of my favorite quotes of all time, reminding us that we get what we want by giving it away!
“Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end. Submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“Love is holy because it is like grace–the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.” Marilynne Robinson
Show Notes
What are the ways you can love the people in your life?
1. Stop pretending. Take baby steps toward living in your own skin. Stop holding back. Love with your whole heart and stop counting the cost.
“I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle.
2. Stop waiting and hiding. You think it’ll be easier to live this way at some designated point in the future when you get your life together. That point is very allusive and probably not a reality for most of us.
3. Start small and start today. Do the next thing you can do to love and serve the people around you. Make a meal. Sit and talk. Do the laundry. Serving your people well is not about one act of giant heroism, it’s about a thousand little ordinary acts of love and kindness.
Resources and Links
- Finding God’s Will For Your Life TODAY
- Who is Your Neighbor
- On Giftedness and Calling
- A Life of Calling [podcast] (by far my most downloaded podcast)
- Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
- Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
- God At Work, Gene Veith
I love the notes for your podcast…i’m not a podcast listener. But I love these thoughts about loving and serving your neighbor being my calling. LOVE IT!! I mean that they are the wise words that I’ve needed to hear. Think how much more i might get if i would listen but somehow that’s hard for me. but thanks for putting some notes here for me and forgetting the cs lewis quote so that I could read it here.
Mucho love!!
this ismy first time to listen to your podcast and it was such a blessing. can’t wait to go back and listen more. at times I have struggled with feeling the thing I am good at, what I have made my business with is not worthy if being a calling because it is not “jesusey” enough.
I love the perspective you share here to think about it in a different way.
love hearing your voice. almost like visiting with you. xoxo
Oh, I’m so sad it’s over! This series has been a wonderful blessing to me so thank you so much for taking the time to do it!
Thank you so much Celeste. I hope to do another series and I so appreciate the feedback.
xoxo
I enjoyed your podcast to much. I took it as “my time” to listen, be calm, and reflect.
This last one struck a particular chord with me. Last night, coincidentally, I was thinking about how exhausted I am. I work from home (telecommute) and lately it seems to consume me. I feel like I’m neglecting my family. I’m present physically, but I’m giving so much to those things that aren’t important. My two girls are growing so fast and lately, as I often find my self tired and short in temper, I feel that sense of guilt and failure. I want them to know that I love them, that I can provide for them physically, but also emotionally. There is so much I want to teach them, to show them . . . I’m trying to refocus on what is important and to remember that the homemade dinners, the homework help, the reading sessions at night are my chances to serve them.
Bless you, Erin. It’s hard, I know. Praying for you today.
xoxo
I loved this! Need to just start with the thousand small acts and think of others so much more than myself. NEEDED this today; thanks for your faithful work in studying and sharing with us!
Blessings to you this day.
xox
🙂
Your post on finding your calling was a game changer for me. It is unbelievable how easy it is to take for granted the people we love most. Today I prayed for my husband(intently thinking about his needs). I realized he needs my prayers more than anybody, yet often gets put lower and lower on the list especially when things are well. We also baked and delivered your monster cookies for a dear friend of ours who lost her husband after 64years of marriage. Thanks for putting in the work for the podcast, it was wonderful!
Awww, makes my day Lacey!
Thanks for sharing!
xoxo
I have been negligent in following your podcasts since I have been overwhelmed with the routine of two little ones. After this one though, I now have an appointment to hear the rest. I am, coincidentally, reading Gilead right now, and it is so fantastic. Your writing reminds me of Marilynne Robinson. It is charming and humble, but tells truths that I know to be true, despite never having been able to put them into words myself. You both have a humor in your stories that makes me interrupt my husband in whatever he is doing to read him entire passages (for example, when the horse was stuck in the caved in tunnel in Gilead…the whole story of it). And you are both coming from a place of much learning and contemplation, as is evident in your writing and when I am reading I realize that there is so much more that I want to learn. In short…keep being awesome!
I love this podcast. I’m sending it on to friends and family.
I saw this today and thought you might enjoy: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/opinion/sunday/arthur-c-brooks-love-people-not-pleasure.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0
Even science backs it all up. None of this is particularly revolutionary, but oh do we need to hear it often.
My family and I are currently driving from Northern NSW to Sydney Australia. A 10 hour drive. So my service to others is keeping my husband a kids fed and watered and happy during our long drive! 🙂
Absolutely loved your podcast! Thanks so much xo
By selecting the person themselves, they will know that
they are making the right connection. Whatever your path just keep moving up towards happiness one step at a time.
His self hypnosis MP3 download ‘Letting Go of the Past’ is now available.
You give them puppy dog eyes or try to manipulative games.
Perhaps they no longer love you, but how do you feel for them.
If derek blasberg is just a mid west boy from a fly over state, does that mean anyone can move to
new york and become a ny socialite.
Edie, I just finished listening to all the podcasts for a second time. Then I made CDs of them to mail to one of my best friends. Thanks for these encouraging words. I especially loved the one on beauty as a way that God calls us to Himself. Keep up the good work.
You are such a blessing to me! Thank you for committing to this!
Edie,
I have been listening to your podcasts today and feel encouraged. I have been exhausted by the endless needs of my four kids this summer. This week school started and I have been able to have some quiet, some rest, some reading time, some car time alone, etc. I have been able to MISS my kids a little and can look forward to meeting their needs again. Thank you for your encouragement.
Eddie,
Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for loving us through your words….challenging us, encouraging and filing us with God’s love by sacrificing your time to serve your readers. I absolutely cherish you and have been following you for years. Thank you for blessing me AND my family. YOU are precious! Waiting for my children to wake up, so I can serve and love on them.
Blessings to you and your family!
I made those cornmeal pancakes for breakfast-for-dinner last night, so good! Thanks Tracy!
Hi, Wow! Look at this list!! I don’t really listen to a lot of podcasts but I definitely think that I should start now and finally kick that nasty Netflix habit that I have! I’ve heard of some of these podcasts and I love what I heard from them so I can’t wait to dig into the rest thanks so much for sharing this list!
This works for me as a person with a reasonably uncluttered inbox – I get less than 50 emails a day. If I have an email I need to take care of but can’t/won’t do it right now, I make sure to keep it unread and I can’t mark it as read until I’ve actually finished that task. The way my inbox is organized, my unread emails are always on top. So that way it’s really hard to forget about something or let it get lost in your inbox, since it’s always there waiting for you to take care of it!