If you have several spare hours a day, you can use this time to your own ends or you could offer part of this time in the service of others. Is it a selfish choice to use your spare time only to satisfy your own desires? To answer this question, one must first ask the question whether the spare time you have is directed to satisfy a need or a want. To make this point understandable is to ask whether what you are using your spare time to do of necessity. If it is a task or chore that must be completed, for example, studying for a test or exam, than it is something categorized as a need.
On the other hand, if your spare time is used to flop down in front of a television with the only purpose to put in time than you are wasting or squandering time. In essence, there is no need to watch television but, instead, a want. Let me be clear, however, that there is nothing inherently wrong with watching television. On the one hand, you may choose to watch television as a method of relaxation after a stressful day. The act of watching television takes the mind away from issues of the day.
But, if you simply watch television every evening after supper and you do this until bedtime, and you repeat this same behavior throughout the weekend, you may be satisfying a want and not a need. The fact that you decide to watch television, in fact, is a choice. Now, let me use this example to the extreme. If you watch television and do not help with chores around the house, this may be a selfish choice. If you are in a relationship, there are always chores to do. If you have made the decision to never help with these chores you have made a selfish choice.
On the other extreme are those people who are always active doing what needs to be done, or volunteering for a host of charitable activities and never take any time to relax or to recharge their physical and mental batteries. For these types of people, they have also made a choice but it can be a choice that sees them wear down physically and mentally until they become extremely sick.
So, what am I saying?
I am saying that every person in every walk of life no matter whom they are or what they do all make choices. Some of these choices lead nowhere; there is a void in their life that has not been satisfied nor will be satisfied by the choices they make. Part of this void cannot be satisfied no matter what choices they make. For other people, the choices they make fill the void but only when that void is filled with belief and trust in Jesus Christ. Nothing on this earth can satisfy a person's void or emptiness without this faith and trust.
The person who always tries to fill their inner emptiness with worldly endeavors or pleasures is one who is never satisfied. The person who constantly fills their life with choices that help others will also never be satisfied. Both of these types of people can only be truly satisfied when their life is filled with Jesus as their hope and faith.
And, even the person who believes in Jesus and desires to serve others needs to recognize that balance in life is important. Every person has physical and mental limitations. It is wise to understand that constant giving of oneself needs to be balanced with time to recuperate, to recharge their batteries of life.
The balance I speak of is not a want, in this case, but a need. It is a prudent choice and not a selfish choice. It is a choice that allows a person to continue to serve.
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