Look Beyond Yourself; Get The Big Picture

A recent study shows that a majority of today’s college students see themselves as the “greatest generation.” This title originally given to my grandparents generation that lived through the Great Depression and sacrificed for our freedom in World War II is now being claimed by students who feel a sense of entitlement and natural “giftedness” without the labor and effort required to obtain such a title.

While I will not take the time to delve in to the long-term repercussions of such thinking I do want to encourage each of us to look beyond our own self for a moment and see the bigger picture. Whatever your opinion of God, religion, church, or the Bible we all must agree that life is about more than just us. While the word of God, the overwhelming evidence of creation and our personal faith has led many of us to the truth that there is a God and He is the ruler of the universe you may have not come to that conclusion yet. Faith or no faith, we as a society we must begin to look beyond our own gratification and fulfillment and learn to live big or our insaciable desire to seek our own will lead to great consequences for future generations.

The Bible teaches us in the same passage of scripture that we are to prefer one another and to not be lazy. These two go hand in hand because if you are going to live for things bigger than yourself and prefer others over yourself it will require a great deal of work and sacrifice, but what a reward! There is nothing more uplifting and gratifying than reaching out to help another with no expectation of repayment. Living big means you are not in it for the immediate reward but rather looking at the big picture of a life will lived.

When your life comes to a close and you look back over your days will you see that you have spent your life convincing yourself how important you are to this world or will you have spent yourself showing God, the people you love and the causes you believe in how important they were to you? Decide today to go beyond the superficial shell of self indulgence and self promotion and learn to live big!