In the midst of my summer course readings, I have also begun reading Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. (Yes, I am still slowly working through One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp).
Anyway, the Morrie book is a great story about a man who is diagnosed with ALS. I'm only about 40 pages through, so the plot is just picking up, but when he is interviewed by a news station, he rattles off some of the "lightning rod" of ideas he had had. He refused to be depressed. Some things he said were...
"Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do."
"Accept the past as the past, without denying it or discarding it."
"Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others."
"Don't assume that it's too late to get involved."
Four questions that Morrie asks:
"Have you found someone to share your heart with?"
"Are you giving to your community?"
"Are you at peace with yourself?"
"Are you trying to be as human as you can be?"
As a wise friend told me who I've quoted before, To give, even if you have nothing, to share whatever you can, to be good to all the people in your life=the secret of happiness. The key word- to GIVE. Give it up, don't hang on to material things. Give of yourself, give your time , help others, give your heart to whomever needs it.
I wrote a paper tonight on love being the factor that drives us to be servants and leaders. And unless that love is rooted and Christ-like, as described in 1 Corinthians 13 (And thank you Just me for getting me thinking about this), it's not really love.
Give. Love. With all of your heart.
I used to think that in order to be happy, life had to be all about what I wanted.
What a crock. Life is about loving. giving. and forgiving. All in the name of Jesus.
I believe that if I can lay down at night in bed, review my blessings from the day, and know that I have shown love and forgiveness, and given to others, I am happy. And I can fall asleep with a smile on my face.
It doesn't matter what others think of me- if they hate me, are out to get me, etc. It doesn't matter if I have everything I wanted and dreamed. It doesn't matter if I am perfectly.
No, happiness lies in loving, giving, and forgiving in the name of Jesus. I'm not perfect- no, but I try my hardest.
And lately, I've found myself falling asleep with a smile on my face. And it's a real smile.
Oh the joy that is in loving, giving and forgiving. And counting your blessings. And being rooted in Christ. It's an amazing feeling.
Blessings:
-First class- it was pretty good!
-Lunch with a well respected theology professor and great conversation accompanied!
-Finding relief from a chiropractor- my limped walking has thrown my back off and I have severe lower back pain now- thankfully, the chiropractor helped!
-Sitting outside reading in this beautiful "summer" night- and writing my paper as well.
-Getting the service order I'm playing this coming Sunday and finding out I get to play THIS HYMN!
-Package in the mail!
-"Does he always laugh this much?" (the prof. speaking about me in class to other students)
What an amazing list of statements and questions. All so true and so important. I'm so glad you're getting to smile more!!
ReplyDeleteI looked up the hymn - I couldn't make out the words at all in the video but I looked them up and yeaah, it's great!! It feels weird to think it's still the Easter season, that feels like so long ago even though it was only 2 weeks...