Get a life! 

‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ Matthew 25:21 NIV 

Check out this advice given by novelist Anna Quindlen, at a university graduation ceremony: ‘Don’t confuse your life with your work. What you are will always be more important than what you do. There’ll be many others with your same degree, doing what you want to do, maybe doing it better. But you have sole custody, not only of your life, but of your mind and of your heart. It’s easier to write a résumé than craft a spirit or build a character. And a résumé is cold comfort when you’re sad, broke, lonely or you’ve received back the test results and they’re not so good. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I make my marriage vows mean something. I pray. I’m good to my friends, because without them I’d be a cardboard cut-out. Get a life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion or bigger paycheque or larger house. Do you really think you’d care about those things if you had a suspected stroke or found a lump in your breast? Get a life in which you are generous. All of you want to do well but if you don’t do good, doing well will never be enough.’ Do it right the first time because life’s not a dress rehearsal. Discover God’s will for you and give yourself unreservedly to it. Live with the end in view; the final graduation when you’ll want to hear the words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matthew 25:21 NIV). 

Prayer Point:

Lord, show me what life really is; show me the value of me in Your kingdom. Your Word says You know every hair on my head, and I believe it. Help me see the fullness of You in me, help me know the depth of Your character, the depth of Your grace, Your mercy and love, that I might one day hear You say ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ 

Acknowledgements: Quindlen, Anna, commencement address to Villanova University, 23 June, 2000.