Life is full of metaphors for how we live. Take for example my life motto which is to “Live Life”, you might read this and be like well isn’t that everyone’s motto as long as they are breathing. Perhaps in some sense it is or should be everyone’s motto, yet for me “Live Life” is a loaded set of two words that means so much more.
To LIVE LIFE
Think about it for a second what does it really mean to Live Life.
Are you alive?
What makes you alive?
What gives you the right to say I am Alive? Or I am living Life!
Often times we assume that we are living life. Coasting along and doing everything we think we want to do and calling it life. We eat. We Sleep. We Read. We Write. We have friends. We have family. We Work. We Play. We drift through twenty-four hour periods that we mark off on the walls of our prison cell life as just another day. But is there more? Is there more than just drifting? More than just calling today a day? Are we living?
Life is not simply explained by any form of science, philosophy, education, or religion. Life is not a mathematical formula that we can just type into our computer chip brains and come out with the answer too. We were not made to know all about life and just read a manuel to fix all the twists and turns, breaks and problems. Live Life is so much more than that.
At the core what is life? An experience? A Journey? A story? A bleeding out of all emotions and thoughts? Is it something that only we can feel or is it something we share fully in with others? Life raises a lot of questions but to find the answers we have to live the very thing we can not at times fully define. But what is life at it’s core.
Jesus speaks on life in John 10:10,
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (NIV)
“Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” (Message)
When I read these verses it’s pretty clear to me that Jesus says at the core life is lived through him. Life is only fully life when it is fully lived in the way, the truth, and the love that Jesus offers. It’s there that we find the pasture where we grow and learn to enjoy life. So life is more than what we think we might be living?
Jesus life was lived in serves to others. In other words life is most full when we are able to give it way. When we serve we find life but also in serving we are sharing the experience and joy of life with those whom we serve. Jesus spent the majority of his time on the streets or in others homes healing the sick, comforting the weak, telling stories to inspire and spread the truth of love, and ultimately giving all he had including his life to serve others.
One of my favorite quotes that seems to capture this thought on how serves is a part of life is from J. Oswald Sander’s book Spiritual leadership where he writes, “True greatness, true leadership, is found in giving yourself in service to others, not in coaxing or inducing others to serve you. True service is never without cost… we must aim to put more into life than we take out.” To put more into life than we take out. Live Life means to give all we have to serve the world.
To Live Life is to Serve.
Even if that means giving up everything to do it.
But thats not all that life is. Life is so much more. It’s adventure of exploration and discovery, each day holds truth and mystery. For me this means going on quests to find truth, search honestly and deeply to find what drives my soul. Adventure is calling us forth to get up and find the life that God is calling us to. To be never settle for the mundane or boring. To always look for more, always to grow, explore, create and be all that we can be.
This is living alive.
Live life is an Adventure.
Live Life is also a Story.
In the Message translation of John 10:10 it says “ (they) will freely go in and out, and find pasture”. Freely we will explore the world and find the adventure and write the stories of our lives that will be worth retelling to the next generation. New York best selling author, Donald Miller, has written a number of books that have inspired me to live a better story. To live life in such a way that it’s incredible, different and creative. Donald talks a lot about living the story and making intentional choices that will create moments in your life that will teach you things that you never thought of learning and wont ever forget.
Dare to actually live life.
Live Life.
Live the Story.
I think the third thing that we often miss in trying to live life is we forget to Love. We forget that at the core of everything love is always better. I do not mean love in the sense that the world uses it, as going out and getting the girl or guy and being intimate in a sexual way. No, love is more than that. Love is caring so deeply for others that it moves you to take action to meet their needs in every area that you possibly can in a healthy and meaningful way. Love means putting others first and pouring all your potential gifts into them.
Love Helps.
Love Moves
It not only moves you but it moves them.
Love changes things
When you encounter Love that cares you can not remain the same.
Love is not passive it is active.
When life is lived to the fullest it is there that we love people enough to bring them to the pastures with us. To bring them on the adventure. To share our story with them. To serve others along the way or wherever we find ourselves. Life can not be separated from love because without love life is merely an empty space filled with worthless lines of history soon left in dusty closest irrelevant and uninspiring.
Jesus came in Love that we might have life to the full.
It’s there for the taking or the living.
The first half of John 10:10 talks about the thief coming to kill, destroy and rob us of life. There are many things that have been robbing us of Life. The things we often choose to fill our days with are really killing and destroying us. If self is the core of our own lives are we not stealing from ourselves the opportunity to share our experience with others?
I can’t say that I have always lived life. I have stole a lot of time
and opportunities to be more alive simply because
I rejected the very thing that would give me life to the fullest.
Fear often drives us away from living the adventure because there is to much risk. Pride often keeps us from serving whole heartedly because we look for what we might get out of everything. Lies rob us of the truth that is freely ours to be lived out. Love is to hard a choice to commit to. Laziness kills the greater stories that are just waiting to be written in your life.
I don’t know of anyone what would allow a thief to come in their front door and steal the very things that mean the most to them. BUT why do we do it? Why do we steal and kill the very life that is waiting for us to live? To live life is to get up and take action. To live like Jesus. To chase the dreams and find adventure. To throw off fear, pride, lies, laziness and so much more that we are allowing to stand in the way of Living Fully alive.
WE MAY HAVE LIFE TO THE FULL.
Live Life
Live life is written on a few places around my room and on my phone so I remember it everyday. Two words inspire me to search, go, learn, grow, be, love, care, dream, adventure and always tell my story one day at a time. A few years ago I wrote on a blank white piece of paper the words LIVE LIFE in black sharpie and hung it on my wall. Slowly God is showing me more fully what it means to live life. It’s become more than two words on a piece of paper, it’s a motto and the first of many metaphors that are becoming reminders and lessons for me on what life is really all about.
My hope is that you would LIVE LIFE
Join the adventure
Take the risk
Life is waiting for us to Live it.
-Caleb Ross Hunter
10/26/2011
The Adventure of Dragon Hunting 