And partings leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
While sailing over life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
In seeing, shall take heart again.
And that’s what we all like to see, that something that we have did that will cause others to—to benefit by what we have done.
A few days ago I was sitting, talking to my loyal little friend here in the city, a medical doctor, Sam Adair. And he said, “How are you doing, Bill?”
And I said, “Oh, pretty fair, I suppose, Doc.” I said; “Yourself?”
And he said, “Oh, a lot of patients.” Said, “I had fifteen examinations this afternoon.”
I said, “Well, that’s good as long as it’s just examinations and finding nothing wrong.” I said, “You know, the…” We got talking about back when we were boys. And I said, “Well, Doc, I don’t know just how long I’m going to be around. We’re both in our fifties.”
And he said, “That’s true, Bill.”
And I said, “But all these years, about thirty-one years of ministry now, I have kept my heart prepared for that hour when He comes. So it doesn’t matter when He comes.”
So he said, “That is true.”
I said, “The greatest thrill I have is living for others.”
And he said, “That’s what life is, makes life real, is when you…not what you can do or accomplish for yourself, but what you can do for others.”
See, that’s when you’re really living. And if there happens to be someone among us who has never did that, tried to live for somebody else, give that a try, and just see how much more life holds for you when you will not live for what you can get yourself out of life but what you can give someone else in life. And you’ll find that it’s more blessed than riches or anything of…that can be thought of. Is what you can do for someone else to make life’s burdens…Which, life in itself is a burden. And it will make it a little lighter for someone else. You just don’t know the joy unless you’ve tried it once, to do something for someone else.
Revelation, Chapter Five
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