Happiness Comes Best Through Serving Others

Here is a quote from Ed Welch, and it is so true: "The best way to live--the way you will be most happy--is to make life more about God and other people than it is about you."

--Ed Welch

  Years ago, when I was much younger, I went through different phases of depression. My husband didn't know what to do with me. I even went to counselors to try to get help, but the best recommendation that we got from someone was that I needed to be serving other people. 

   After years of thinking about that, it made sense. There is just something that is therapeutic about serving others. It does bring joy to one's life when you are serving other people. The alternative is to serve yourself. 

  Serving oneself is kind of like the Dead Sea. In the Dead Sea, water just keeps on coming in, but nothing comes out of it. It just keeps on taking. That is why it is the 'Dead' Sea. There is no life in it because there is no give and take. It doesn't give out the water it receives. It just keeps taking it in. 

   That is like us in our selfish state. We just keep taking things in, but we never give away. God's blessings are abundant, but we keep them to ourselves. 

   We get the most joy and satisfaction when our lives are not about us. Maybe that's the way God intended it to be all along. Maybe because of the fall and our darkened understanding of things, we haven't discovered the joy and freedom that comes from serving others and living our lives out for something other than ourselves.