Joyful Ruins

I was always told

that living life for others

is the most honorable way to be

and yet

if I only live life for others

the way others respond

or treat me

will determine my life

And if I live life for others

nothing inside me

would ever be

reserved for me

or for God

Living solely for others

has a grand ring to it

but it’s a hollow sound

Living for yourself

is not the aim either

because you’ll never

have compassion

or seek out the welfare of others

Living for God

can sound like holiness

but if you’re living for Him

out of legalism

or fear

or forgetting your humanity

in the process

You are not living for Him

Living wholly

that’s what I want

whole with others

because I’ve worked on my wholeness

while spending time with God

who makes me whole

In the end

you want

living for God

to beget

living for yourself

to beget

living for others

Without even one of those

there will be much brokenness

It’s the wholeness of all three

that will make this life

worth living