Giving Our Lives Away

If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Php 2:1-4 MSG)

Yesterday, I spoke with a man a  who is a teacher's assistant at a handicap school, tutors middle school kids after school, and spends his summers helping at a summer camp for youth. My comment to my wife was, "He is giving his life away."

Of course this begs the question, How am I giving my life away?

My first thoughts were along the lines of  Well, what is giving my life away?  sounding strangely familiar to the question of Who is my neighbor?  If we have to qualify what giving our lives away is, then we haven't gotten to where we need to be yet - wrong attitude, wrong thinking, wrong question.  A better question would be How can I give my life away today.

I remember a song Steven Curtis Chapman used to do called "My Turn Now":

My Turn Now Lyrics

Well it's my turn now
My turn now
Hey, my turn to give my life away
I close the book and I shake my head
Sometimes I can't believe the things I've read
I don't deserve what He did for me
Hey, hey


He gave His love and His life away
And now He's asking me to do the same
So I'm gonna give Him all I am
And all I ever hope to be 'cause

Chorus
It's my turn now
Well it's my turn now
My turn to give my life away

I open up the book and look again
I read the stories of the faithful men
Who gave up all they had to follow Him
Yeah, yeah

He used the strong and He used the weak
He even gave the timid words to speak
He called whoever listened then
And now His call goes out again
Chorus

Bridge


My turn to say "I love Him"
My turn to let Him know
My life is His, so where He leads me that's where I will go
Chorus

Let's keep asking ourselves ... How can I give my life away today?

Let's keep noticing and being inspired by those who are giving their lives away.

The rest of Philippians 2 gives us the answer to having a right attitude so that when we ask the right question, we will have the right response.