Title: Live Yourself
John 21 (28) Live as yourself
(John 21:20-22)
"Acknowledge your potential"
In life, I see cases where people who seem inferior to me succeed. You don't have to feel bad about it. Use the success of others only as a stimulus for your own success. Because of the success of the people of the world, we must not forget the value of 'a life of love and devotion to God and the church'.
God is not very interested in worldly success. What matters is how successful you are before God. Real success depends on who is better at fulfilling God's mission and who is more like Jesus. Even if he doesn't have money, power, or skills, he is the most successful person if he has faith, character, and passion for the character and mission of the Lord.
If you don't have what others have and don't enjoy what others enjoy, you can be upset. But what really upsets me is that I can't live up to the purpose of my existence. What is the purpose of my existence? Such things as love of God, love of neighbor, love of the church, and the salvation of souls. If you do not deviate from the purpose of such existence, you will surely be used.
Deviating from the purpose of being, the soul becomes like a ship without a mast. Then, your emotions will fluctuate along with the waves of the environment, going back and forth between arrogance and self-awareness. Pride is a disease, but self-abuse is also a disease. It is wrong to view oneself as great, but it is also wrong to demean oneself excessively and live in worry and fear.
You may be disappointed for a moment in others, but never to be disappointed in yourself. Desperation is violence inflicted on oneself. Why are people desperate? This is because they look at the bread of others and do not acknowledge their own potential. If you envy others, see your own potential, and neglect to sweat, you will inevitably become unhappy.
Proverbs 21:25 says this: “The lust of a lazy man kills him, for his hands do not like to work.” A lazy person nurtures lust and aspirations without raising a hand, and dies because of that lust. If you spend time doing nothing and envying others like that, your soul dies and your happiness dies.
Cherish yourself. Everyone has their own beauty and potential. There are simple dandelions and beautiful roses in the flower garden. Dandelions do not envy roses. Perhaps the rose is more envious of the vitality of the dandelion. Do not envy the success of the world. Outwardly they may not know it, but on the inside, they may be more envious of those who worship and pray. True faith before God is more precious than the great successes of the world.
< Live according to the mission and be yourself >
Why do boredom and emptiness arise in life? If you try to succeed without thinking about your mission, you will easily get tired and disappointed. Without a mission, he runs endlessly to try and succeed. If he fails, he cries for failure, and if he succeeds, he cries for emptiness. When a person ignores the Word and prayer and ignores missions and salvation, he becomes increasingly empty and unhappy. To live well is not to live like others, but to live as one's own, thinking about God's will and mission.
Living by a mission usually makes you hungry. The winds and rains of ordeal are blowing from all directions, and there are times when you have to risk your life. However, when we live according to our mission, God takes responsibility for our life and makes it abundantly rewarding. Sometimes when I meet a difficult colleague, I try to remind him of his mission and comfort him so that he does not get frustrated. If you comfort yourself like that, the person being comforted will be comforted, and the comforter will also be comforted. Mission is the number one source of comfort and reward for people.
Don't live by the copy, live by the original. ‘I’ is the only being in the world. No one can replace ‘me’. Not only the rich are rich, but I am also rich. I also have a lot of assets. Even past misfortunes and shame are assets, and present hardship assets. If you make good use of those assets and sublimate them, they can become wonderful channels of blessings that spread blessings to the world.
Even if you look like you have forgotten all the foundation God has given you and only the skin remains, stand up again with a mission. If your heart is ready, God will give you a new foundation. Sometimes I suffer and sometimes I get rebuked by God, but God never takes away my potential.
In the text, the Lord severely rebuked Peter, but Peter was not displeased with the Lord. He was the eldest of the disciples, even older than the Lord, but at any time he was ready to be typically reviled. When he held on to the Lord with such a generous heart, the Lord made him the most blessed being in history. Holding on to the Lord to the end is the most blessed attitude to hold on to one's potential.