The form of life we scream out for is the simple life that can be appreciated and enjoyed. We know when we haven’t got it. We clamour for it. We’re angered because we don’t have it.
Is it any more complicated than to:
Find peace. Establish joy. Nurture love. Be yourself. Enjoy God.
Find Peace
This is a different process and destination for each of us. Finding peace happens to be a very personal thing. Yet, it’s within the grasp of all people. It’s as much about knowing ourselves and how to get there than anything.
As a vision for life is there anything more important than finding our peace? From all this other things good come. Once we’ve found it then it’s our job to maintain it.
Establish Joy
How do we have hope if joy is not first established? Indeed, these two commute in tandem.
To establish joy is something we actively do. This is to agree with God that we’re blessed beyond our comprehension. Even the most basic life is blessed with life past imagination.
Nurture Love
Life is, of a sense, all about relationships. Even though the laws of life require us to love in order to succeed, we want to love, because we want to be loved. We know we must propagate what we wish to receive.
Nurturing love is fundamentally about giving; a life that gives itself away is a happy life indeed, because it has no burden for itself, only for others. It’s about knowing who to love and focus on, and how.
Be Yourself
Being ourselves is not really what we think it is. It’s not doing what we selfishly want.
Instead, we must be under no illusions as to who we actually are. This is about self-knowledge and, at root, honesty. Would we allow a false agent to represent us? So why do we lie to ourselves and follow others’ dreams? — either what others have in mind for us, or what we desire to replicate from others’ success.
Knowing ourselves, then, is not as simple as it seems. Sometimes we must go to our depths to be forced to face up to who we are. Of course, those people who think they know, but may be deluded, might scoff at these suggestions.
Knowing ourselves is acceptance of who we are; the ability, also, to enjoy God.
Enjoy God
This has to be a most straightforward role; to truly enjoy God is to have the whole of life in perspective. It’s understanding that God is relational being; one with a strong desire to be our friend, but no ordinarily friend, rather an entirely faithful friend.
To enjoy God is to seek the best out of all have our relationships — with God our friend, with others, and most importantly with ourselves.
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
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