What do you live for?

By Abimbola Abatta

I have often asked myself this question: what do I live for? That I live for God is undeniable, but afterwards, what exactly do I live for? During my alone moment, I came to a realisation that we live for God in order to live for others. (I stand to be corrected if there is a contrary opinion.)

God gave mankind a commandment of love. To paraphrase His injunction, He said, “Love God with all your heart. After you’ve loved God, show love to your neighbours—friends and enemies.”

If God has given us the commandment of love, then we live for love. Your purpose in life revolves around love! That’s just the simple truth. For instance, I love writing. I have found a distinct purpose in writing inspirational write-ups. I want to inspire the downtrodden, the brokenhearted, the depressed, and so many others. My passion for writing stems from a love for others.

Similarly, if you are a teacher, you teach in order to build lives and shape the future. You are like a potter, moulding the lives of your pupils/students. You share knowledge with them to broaden their horizon and capacity. If you don’t love humanity, you won’t be there teaching.

As long as your career revolves around your purpose and what you are passionate about, you are literally living for others. Why exactly do you work? Except you are a selfish tortoise, the essence of working is to make life better for a group of people—family, friends, neighbours, the less privileged, etc.

We are meant to live for others. This is why we are members of a family and part of a community. If your reason for living is solely for yourself, make amendment today. You are meant to expend your purpose (and love) on humanity.  No one was born in isolation. Everyone comes from a household and society. You and I are here to influence our household and society.

I want you to understand that living for others is beyond money. In fact, you don’t have to be rich before you give out to others. Offering words of encouragement or advice to people can make a big difference. Saying positive things about people, standing up for their rights, saving them from trouble, warning them against calamity, etc can make a whole lot of difference too.

So, I repeat this with conviction, we live for others. We live to make the world a better place for the future generation. We live to show unconditional love to others. We live to contribute our quota to humanity. We live to fight every vice that threatens the unity and peace of mankind. We live to build a stronghold with others against the storms of life.

You write to inspire, inform, educate, entertain, and influence people. You teach to build lives. You counsel and coach to enlighten others. You lead to serve as a human guide to your followers. You are an architect because you aim to design houses that will shelter people from the sun and rain.

As a software developer, you develop computer programmes that will make life easier for humans. As a medical doctor, you save lives. As a business person, you offer goods and services for the use of mankind.

Based on the foregoing, we can rightly say everything we do in life is for others. If we live with this mindset, the world will be a better place.

Dear reader, take a moment to examine your life. What do you live for? Have you been living for yourself or others? Remember, your purpose in life is to add value to lives because therein lies our purpose and fulfilment.