How to Make Ordinary Life Meaningful and Valuable?

How to Make Ordinary Life Meaningful and Valuable?

May 18, 2018

By Lin Shuo

It was a brilliantly sunny day in March. Since my sick leave was coming to an end and I was seldom at leisure, I took my cellphone, a bottle of mineral water, and along a winding path I started to climb the mountain located in the east side of the city. As I climbed while listening to the music, I became breathless. The mountain looked not very high, but it took me over an hour to reach the summit.

At the top of the mountain, I strained my eyes to look at the distance, feeling relaxed and happy. As I wanted to stay alone quietly and to avoid the crowds, I went to look for a secluded place. I entered through the crack between two rocks, and circled around behind a big rock, where few people would arrive. Keeping my back close to the big rock, I gingerly sat down and heartily appreciated the mood of the common saying “The scenery is at the peak of the mountain.” The view from the mountaintop was spectacular: The reservoir was blue, the wheat fields green, the peach orchards pink, the rape flowers light yellow, and soon gold would be the predominant color. I greedily admired the beautiful scenery and breathed the unique fragrance of spring. It felt as if I were in an earthly paradise and my spirit wandered unconstrainedly, thoughts thronging my mind …

Having weathered the vicissitude, I felt life was transient and I was pushing fifty. I thought back to the past over forty years. In the first 20 years, I fought for fame and in the second 20 years for fortune. At present I am a “slave.” Putting on the mask, I have a car, a house, and a job; I have a good wife, a son, and a daughter—a happy family. Taking off the mask, I am a slave to the car, the house, and the money—a lifelong slave. At the thought of this, I was filled with mingled feelings. More than once I asked myself: Is this the dream that I had strived for from twenty years ago? At that time, in order to make my great expectation come true, I left my hometown and applied myself diligently to my study for 18 years. When I my dream finally came true, I found it was no different from others’—getting a job, which was not what I liked. Whenever I thought about it, I felt as if I were a prisoner servicing a sentence: After toiling over working, I queued up to get meals with an empty bowl. Every time when it was my turn, I discovered that the proportion of food in my bowl was always less than others’. Seeing that the meat went into others’ bowls, I became extremely unbalanced in my heart.

“Where do I come from? Where am I going? How can I live a meaningful life?” I had considered this issue on more than one occasion. I always wanted to make a complete change in the way I lived and was unwilling to go with the crowd any longer, yet I was powerless to climb up the bank. In recent years my condition was not as good as before. I couldn’t help but think: If I missed this spring scenery, I could wait until the next year. Whereas life, I have but only one; if I lost it, everything would become fleeting clouds. Just as the words of King Solomon in the Bible, “What profit has a man of all his labor which he takes under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:3). “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecc 1:14). The Lord Jesus said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Over these years, I regarded these words as the maxim of my life and also recited them and showed them off to my friends time and time again. But only today did I have such a genuine understanding.

Thinking of this, I sighed slightly and took a sip of mineral water from the bottle. As I put it down, I caught sight of a bitter sow thistle flower. It poked through the rock crevice, swaying in the breeze. Without sufficient nutrients, its leaves looked emaciated and curly. Eyeing this little light yellow flower carefully, I could not help screwing the top off the bottle and watering it. And this little flower shook its head, seemingly saying, “Thank you, my friend!” I gazed at it quietly and a feeling of pity grew on me. It silently stood leaning to one side, and even could not draw a passing bee’s attention. But in such an adverse environment, it still bloomed alone, offered its best side to spring, and did its utmost to fulfill the mission that the Creator bestowed on it. I came across it in this spring, and probably I was the first and also the last who saw it. Nevertheless, it didn’t voice any regret, or feel discouraged, nor did it have complaints, extravagant desires, or any laziness. Looking at this flower swaying in the breeze, I felt slightly ashamed.

In this busy material world, I was obscure and insignificant as this sow thistle flower, but I always desired to rely on my brilliant mind and diligent hands to change my life. Thinking back, from the day that I graduated from the university, I decided to dive head-first into my work with very high hopes and full confidence, to lean on my own hands to create a beautiful life and realize the value of my life. And I started to carry out my dream plan. Aside from work, I joined the ranks of fishing in the sea of business with my brilliant mind and kinds of social relationship. Though I rushed and toiled, worked hard and struggled desperately, several years later, not only was my situation not improved much, but I had a variety of bodily ills. Till this day, I had been reduced to becoming a lifelong slave. When I was aware that my dream plan completely fell through, I found I had long since been gray. Only then did I find that I had already lost my direction in the sea of people: Over so many years, I was like a donkey pulling the millstone with its eyes covered; I walked on and on and thought I had walked long, but actually I was spinning in circles.

Until one day, I saw the following words of God: “Because of the Creator’s sovereignty and predestination, a lonely soul that started out with nothing to its name gains parents and a family, the chance to become a member of the human race, the chance to experience human life and see the world; and it also gains the chance to experience the Creator’s sovereignty, to know the marvelousness of the creation by the Creator, and most of all, to know and become subject to the Creator’s authority. But most people do not really seize this rare and fleeting opportunity. One exhausts a lifetime’s worth of energy fighting against fate, spends all of one’s time bustling about trying to feed one’s family and shuttling back and forth between wealth and status. The things that people treasure are family, money, and fame; they view these as the most valuable things in life. All people complain about their fates, yet still they push to the back of their minds the questions that it is most imperative to examine and understand: why man is alive, how man should live, what the value and meaning of life is. All of their lives, however many years that may be, they just rush about seeking fame and fortune, until their youth has fled, until they become gray and wrinkled; until they see that fame and fortune cannot stop one’s slide toward senility, that money cannot fill the emptiness of the heart; until they understand that no one is exempt from the law of birth, aging, sickness, and death, that no one can escape what fate has in store.” Each and every word of God spoke to my heart. Over 20 years, I shuttled back and forth between wealth and status, exhausted half my lifetime’s worth of energy trying to change my fate, and to pursue getting ahead and towering above others. But in the end, I had yet to change my ordinary life, and had yet to understand what the meaning of life was. Originally, God gave me a chance of coming to this world to experience and know the Creator’s sovereignty and His great power; however, I wasted the chance in vain…. In comparison with the sow thistle flower which was contented to be obscure, I was really inferior and overcome with emotion.

God also says: “If one views life as an opportunity to experience the Creator’s sovereignty and come to know His authority, if one sees one’s life as a rare chance to perform one’s duty as a created human being and to fulfill one’s mission, then one will necessarily have the correct outlook on life, will live a life blessed and guided by the Creator, will walk in the light of the Creator, know the Creator’s sovereignty, come under His dominion, become a witness to His miraculous deeds and to His authority.” Having seen these words, I finally understood: Only pursuing to know the Creator and obeying His arrangement is the life attitude a created human being should have; only through performing my duty properly and fulfilling my mission can I live a life blessed and guided by the Creator. This is a valuable and meaningful life. Thinking of this, my heart was illuminated. I knew how I should walk the path ahead: I was no longer willing to rely on my own hands to change my fate. Instead, like the sow thistle flower, I should not complain about fate or contest against the Creator; I should complete my mission in obscurity that the Creator has prearranged and should offer the most brilliant side of my life to the Creator. Only this is the most meaningful life.

When I thought of this, I turned to look down from where I was: Men and women in groups were shuttling across the peach orchard where the peach blossom blooms. They were chasing and playing, chattering and laughing, and occasionally taking pictures of them holding the flowering branches to make beautiful memories. Leisurely, I took out my cellphone, and pointing its camera at the sow thistle flower growing in the rock crevice, I pressed the shutter release button. With this special beauty, I rounded the big rock, and went down the mountain along the winding path unhurriedly …

Source The Internet

Almighty God, Christ of the last days, is the returned Lord Jesus. Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was founded by God personally and is formed by all those who truly follow Almighty God. Only by following Almighty God's work in the last days can we be purified and brought into the wonderful destination. Dear brothers and sisters, have you followed God's footsteps?