Selflessly serve others

In introducing the second virture of enlightening living, Robin S. Sharma used the symbol of a lighthouse to represent the purpose of life.

It is easy to say that "the purpose of life is a life of purpose", but it is not quite so easy to identify the purpose of one life. I am sure that there are some lost souls out there who have spent a lifetime without finding it or some who haven't even tried.

Different people may have different purpose in life, but Sharma dropped a strong hint through the voice of Julian, the fictional character in his book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. Asked what his Dharma is, he replied: "Mine is simple: to selflessly serve others."

This message of selflessly serving others is expanded in the Gospel yesterday, which was about this passage from Isaiah that Jesus read to those who were present at the synagogue:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Jesus followed up the reading by saying: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)

That passage from Isaiah 61 summed up the purpose of the life of Jesus. May the Spirit of the Lord also be upon us, and guide us to follow Jesus's example and make that the purpose of our life too.