August 25, 2005

  • What does it mean to "lay your life down for someone else"?  How exactly do you lay your life down for someone else?  Just one comment before answering this....


    The "laying down of one's life" must result in the other's life being saved.


    So...what situations in life actually exist where you are able to lay down your life for someone else?

Comments (12)

  • hihihi!!!!! sry im hyper right now lol. thanks for the encouragement..hehe and yeah, ur write, too hard to get to know double personalitieis!! lol. anyways, doing much better, everydya is better and better, and im just gettin into the flow of htings and finding where i fit in and meeting people and all that. so what are you up to? college? SOM? hehe. ttyl

    beth :D

  • Followed your link from another's xanga....my thoughts on "laying down ones' life" (or singular thought perhaps): It is very rare that we are called to physically die for another person, but we are frequently called to "die to self" inotherwords, giving up something we want in an effort to allow another to have what they need. Stepping out of God's way, allowing Him to move through us not inspite of us. Make sense?

    Shalom

  • I agree with waterlillies but also, it's not so much that we have people for whom we do lay down our lives as much as it is that there are those for whom we WOULD do it. I guess in the literal sense, it is rarely tested but that doesn't mean it isn't felt.

    On another note, did you really buy a pet snake?

  • hey- yeah im in MN now with my family and my dads the MIR at NCU. i think i did tell you but ill forgive you for forgetting :) jamila's email is irishprincess106@hotmail.com . my brother loves the snake skin, thanks. hes already shown it off to all the neighborhood kids. and scared our dog with it too. :)   k, gotta run! oh and i think not everyone has the chance to lay down ones life for someone else, but that doesnt mean they wouldnt do it. I think that we have all heared of a story where someone had done that though.

  • why does it have to result in the other person being saved?

  • Because otherwise you are not "laying your life down for them...you are just forfeiting your life along with theirs."  However I will preface that by saying their life doesn't nescessarily have to be saved...but the intention of you laying down your life to save them is what counts.  Some such examples that I think are pretty clear cut are firemen and rescue workers that die in the efforts of trying to save someone else.

    Here is an example of a possible similar scenario....guy and girl on a cliff.  The guy says "I'm going to prove to you how much I love you." and then he jumps off the cliff screaming "I love you I love you I love you I love you."  This obviously would be stupid and the woman would not feel loved at all.  However...similar scenario...but the ground gives way and the guy falls off the cliff but pushes the woman to saftey in the process...now that action would show his love.  That would be the guy laying down his life for someone else....the first scenario is not....

    Another scenario that is not an example is that of Romeo and Juliet....killing yourself because someone else is dead and you feel lost is not laying down your life for them...because what have they gained through your actions....jack squat.  To show the futility of this action..up in heaven (hopefully), where we will not be given in marriage anyways, they can say "the person I loved on Earth threw away God's most precious gift because they were lonely without me."

  • i see what you're saying.   what a retarded guy, man.....  that was really funny.  you came up with that example youself, didnt you?

  • we should hang out sometime soon, before justin moves to africa or whatever.   ugh, what a loser!

  • Actually, when you lay your life down for someone, I would say that the key is the definition of "life".  What is your life that you are "laying down"?  Does "laying down" mean dying?  I would say that laying down your life for someone else is the aspect of giving up the elements of your life for someone else - hopes, dreams, energy, time... all the things that make up our "life".  That is my thought...  when Jesus said that phrase, he was telling the disciples that he had already been showing them what love was... before he literally died on the cross... he had been laying down his life already!

  • yeah, hopefully I'll be working all through this semester... that is if it's not too much with school and all. If it gets in the way of school... school is more important then work. So yeah.... are you here yet?

  • kent let's go do something stupid.  come on, you know you want to......

  • Thanks for the comments:  The underlying theme that most people seem to be commmenting on is the aspect of sacrificing some aspect of your life for someone else.  This varying from the physical to the spiritual of setting aside benefits, time, money, prayer,..etc just something of yours that you do for someone else that you could have otherwise spent on yourself.  Jesus being the perfect example who layed down His time, energy, efforts and everything He had while He lived to teach and pour into the lives around Him.  Culminating in Him experiencing death to pay the price for mankind when it is something he did not have to do.

    I guess the challenge is to live a daily lifestyle of "laying down one's own life" from the minor "inconvenience"of investing time into those we normally wouldn't to the greatest aspect of putting one's own vitality on the line for someone else.

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