Everybody seems to be talking about living a completely fulfilled life. What does a fulfilled life look like? What fulfills your life? How would you change your life now to be fulfilled? How can you achieve a fulfilled life?
The fulfilled life looks different for each person, and what would be the fulfilled life for you, might be absolute failure for me. Even so, Living the fulfilled life stems from the same root, no matter who you are. The challenge is learning what kind of flowers blossom from your branch.
The Root of a Fulfilled life.
To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And to love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-40)
Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.
What does it look like to Love God?
There are a lot of voices about how to love your neighbor and even more about how to love yourself, but how do you love God? Now there is a loaded question. Loving God means keeping His commandments, but it also means living out His will in your life.
God is like a great storyteller, and you have a unique role to play in the story that He is telling. He created you with passions and desires so that you could use them within His plan. Don’t spend your time chasing the things that drag you down, but look for opportunities to use your God-given talents.
The bad news: There is no such thing as a completely fulfilled life.
After telling you all that, there is no such thing as a completely fulfilled life…
…not on this Earth anyways.
We were created to be in a perfect, unhindered relationship with God, and we were created to be in a perfect, unhindered relationship with other humans.
We can strive towards that perfect relationship with God and the perfect relationships with humans, but while we are on this earth, sin will always hinder perfect relationships. As much as I would like to find total joy, I am thankful that there is a perfect place for the perfect, complete life because the perfect, complete life isn’t suitable for an imperfect world. We just have to do the best we can here.
Photo by Rachel_thecat, cc-by-sa
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I just love this post!! “Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.” So simple, but so profound.
I would love it if you participated in my weekly blog carnival, The Seventh Day. This post would be an excellent addition to this week’s edition. (Hint, hint)
You can read the details On the Horizon.
Thanks hopeful, There is a theory in philosophy, called Occam’s razor, that says the simplest answer is usually right. I am a great advocate of simplicity.
IMO, we can have a really ‘fulfilled life’ here, that is if we try to live at peace with ourselves and with our creator -at least in one’s perspectives.
Sunny, I’m delighted that you decided to participate in The Seventh Day blog carnival! I hope that you will participate again in the future because I always enjoy reading your entries. I always come away feeling that my time on your site was well spent & find myself thinking about what you write long after I’ve read your words. That’s the mark of talent, in my opinion!
Would you like to host the carnival one week? I’m looking for hosts, so let me know if you are interested!
For me a fulfilled life means that I can look back satisfied and being happy today of what I have completed or lived. When I can say just before I die, my life was happy, my life was good then it is fulfilled !
Sorry, I forgot, I am here on my 7th day, lol !
Sunny – Thanks for exploring a biblical perspective on a “totally fulfilled life.” There’s a lot of stuff out there on this subject now, and I find a lot of it is very effective at getting us stirred up to chase something that is really off the mark from what God intends — in terms of what will lead us to the fulfilled life.
@ Ronnie–I think we can live a fulfilled life on this earth, but it will never be complete. The necessary ingredients for a perfect/complete life is the perfect relationship with God and with others. The unhindered relationship is impossible in this imperfect world. I do encourage everyone to life out their purpose, and strive for a fulfilled life.
@Gattina–I often evaluate my life based on what I think my “older self” would say to me. Right now, the 80 year old Sunny is quite happy with the choices that I am making. She hasn’t always felt that way. Sometimes she kicks me into action. Regardless of how it looks in each person’s life, I think that the basic ingredients are the same (Love God, Love your Neighbor, Love yourself.) You get to choose how that looks with clothes on.
@ Shawn–Thanks for your kind comments.