"ONE SOLITARY LIFE"

Several years ago my wife purchased a box of Christmas cards. I am generally not much of a card person but I appreciate it when someone sends me one, especially my wife or daughter. While my wife was addressing the cards I picked one up and read it. It was entitled "One Solitary Life" and the author was anonymous but the message profound. 

It reads as follows:

"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He never set foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness.

While He was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends deserted him. He was turned over to his enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had – his coat.

When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure for much of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of people on this earth as powerfully as this “One Solitary Life.”'

I realize that this was written about the life of Jesus but I think the overriding point is that when we choose to live a selfless life rather than a selfish life we can effect positive change in the world around us. The older I get the more I realize the value of consuming less and giving more. Jesus gave his life. He is asking us to give our lives for a cause greater than our own. 

In September I was in the hospital for a major surgery and nearly lost my life. Since then I have become keenly aware of my mortality. I am more cognisant than ever of how short this life is and how eternal eternity will be. We each have only a short time allotted to us. I for one don't want to be the guy with most toys when I die. That person does not win. I want to be a person like Jack Klunder in my previous post (Make Your Mission In Life Someone Other Than Yourself) who gave his life for a cause nobler than his own, the cause of helping others have a better life, of lifting up those without the strength or ability to lift themselves and to touch those who are without a touch.

In my travels doing mission work, I have seen people that never get touched. In 1993 I went to Bolivia with Compassion International to see their mission work with children among the native people. My brother-in-law Michael Schut joined me on the trip. It was his first big mission trip and my second. 

Our first day we were high up on the Alta Plano more than 13,000 feet above sea level at the foot of the Andes. There on a flat piece of orange dirt in the shadow of the mountains was a school and orphanage filled with beautiful children, children that were every bit as important to their families as our children are to us. Several of these children had open sores on their faces. Apparently there is a parasite that invades the flesh and several of the kids we visited were afflicted. We were all crowded into a room meeting kids and learning about this new project. I turned around to see my brother-in-law Mike pick up a little boy and hold him in his arms. Then he kissed the boy right on the open wound in his face. Someone told Mike that it wasn't a good idea to be kissing these kids open sores. I love Mike's answer, "I came a long way to touch and be touched. If I don't kiss these kids who will?" Like Jack Klunder, Mike was selfless in this beautiful act toward a little boy. I want to life my life with that kind of courage. I confess I'm not there yet but I'm working on it. 

I hope this story inspires you to take some chances, to do the right thing no matter the cost and to life each day like you were a person on a mission to touch as many lives as you an in the time you have allotted to you.  

May this season be more to you and your family than gifts, a tree, lights and food. May the life of "One Solitary Man" inspire you to live less for yourself and more for others. Perhaps you will consider offering an encouraging word those who work for you and with you. Extend yourself and encourage those that rarely hear an affirming word or receive a kind gesture. It won't take much out of your day to affirm someone or to do something that is aimed at lifting the life of another. If you do you will receive far more than the person you blessed. 

Merry Christmas and may you prosper in your good deeds in the years to come.