Articles
Life Is an Echo
A Chinese proverb says, “Life is an echo—what you send out comes back.” This, of course, is a paraphrase of God’s law that says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7).
I have known people who sowed to themselves and, when help was needed, only had themselves to fall back on. Some of these focused on work; others on hobbies but had not spent time sowing the seed of meaningful relationships.
I have known some who sowed antagonism. Some seemed surprised when they received antagonism back. Others came to embrace and even relish in the animosity that was returned to them.
In 1 Samuel 9 a man by the name of Kish had lost some donkeys. He asked his son, Saul to take one of the servants and look for the donkeys. They went through the Ephraim mountains, through Shalisha and Shaalim, and through the land of Benjamin as far as Zuph with no luck in locating the donkeys. In verse 5 Saul said to the servant, “Come, let us return, lest my father cease caring about the donkeys and become worried about us.” What was the top priority? The donkeys, or the son and servant?
Brian Tracy said, “Eighty percent of life’s satisfaction comes from meaningful relationships.” I believe that Mr. Tracy was very low in his percentage.
“For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). This happened because God wants a relationship with you. God puts people first. God put you before His own Son.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). Why? Because Jesus wants a relationship with you.
Paul made himself a servant to all men, to the Jews, to the Gentiles, to the lawful and the lawless. Why? He tells us why: “to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). Paul goes so far as to say that he would be willing to give up his own relationship with Christ if it would bring his fellow countrymen in the flesh into that saving relationship with Christ (Rom. 9:1-5).
Paul wrote, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…” (Phil. 2:5). What mind? The mind of esteeming others better than yourself – vs. 3. The mind of looking out for the interest of others – vs. 4. The mind of being of one mind, one accord, and the same love for one another – vs. 2.
God’s desire to have a relationship with you grew out of the fact that He loved you first (1 Jn. 4:19). The depth of God’s desire for a relationship with you is echoed in the fact that before you desired a relationship with Him, He sent Christ to die in your place (Rom. 5:8).
What does your life echo back to God?
