Dec 4.97: Light For The Day - "Live Before You Die"

"... I have come in order that you might have life 
-- life in all its fullness."
-- John 10:10b (TEV)

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"Live Before You Die"

Can you identify the author of this quote: "Most men
lead lives of quiet desperation"?

The answer: Henry David Thoreau. As a self-
appointed observer of mankind, he saw that most
people have little or no control of their lives and
they feel desperate.

To avoid that kind of meaningless existence,
Thoreau decided to live alone from 1845 to 1847 in
the woods of Walden Pond, Massachusetts.
(What? No roommates?) He kept a journal, and in
1854 he published it under the title "Walden", which
has become an American classic. (Could that
happen with your journal for English Comp?)

Thoreau wrote, "I went to the woods because I
wished to live deliberately, to front only the
essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn
what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live
what was not life, living is so dear."

Thoreau was right on this point. We can die without
ever having really lived. And "really living" is
definitely not getting wrapped up in the party scene!

Centuries before Thoreau, the apostle Paul told us
in the Bible how to avoid a life of "quiet desperation."
He had discovered that real life, eternal life, begins
only when we turn from our own deeds and rely on
what Christ did for us on the cross.

But Paul didn't stop there. He wanted to go on in his
life, and to experience as much of Christ as he
possibly could. He longed to know Jesus in a deeply
personal way and to share His love with others.
Paul's desire was to fulfill in every way the purpose
for which God had saved him.

"I have been put to death with Christ on His cross,
so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who
lives in me. This life I live now, I live by faith in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave His life
for me."
-- Galatians 2:20 (TEV)
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, life is such a precious gift.
Your Son is even more precious. Help me to know
His mind and feel His heart. Please help me live
before I die, by knowing what it means to live in
Christ, and to experience the power of His
resurrection. Amen. 
-- MD 

REFLECTION :

- Would I rate myself as living "a life of quiet
desperation"? Does my life have much real
meaning beyond myself? 
- Do I find satisfaction as I grow in my relationship
to Christ?

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"I am the living bread which came down from
heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will
live for ever; and the bread which I shall give
for the life of the world is my flesh." 
-- John 6:51 (RSV)

"On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus
stood and said in a loud voice, 
"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and
drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture
has said, streams of living water will flow from
within him."
-- John 7:37-38 (NIV) -

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