The key to living a peaceful and contented life, is to eliminate the 'I' and focus on the 'THEM'... very hard to do for the world teaches that one should get everything out of anything-- "What's in it for me?" The idea that the world revolves around you... the sense of 'entitlement'. So different from value of old... all for the betterment of the whole. I'm curious as to when and what started this movement... was it in the 60's? The hippies and their LOVE cry to the world. The drug-induced state that most were under that time? Go for what feels good? The word used, LOVE, is quite familiar but somehow through the years, the meaning has gotten warped. It is no longer sacrificing for others but loving oneself is the key to happiness. So different from the examples we find in the life of Jesus. I'm not saying that I'm excluded from the 'what's in it for me' group of people, I'm in the midst of them... but I try everyday to get out from that spot. It's a REAL hard path to follow, Christ's ways. But at times when I get a few bits of success, are for me, my happiest and most satisfying moments. When I forget about my pain and see only those of others; when I help others feel better as opposed to making myself feel better. When I give, for the sake of giving [goodwill], I find my heart smile and not just my face.
I have come to appreciate the little things and the most unpopular concepts in this world. For they give the most joy and I feel God's presence more. I ceased from dreaming of being great in the eyes of the world, instead I'll focus on being His child. Life is but vapor in comparison to eternity... I'll store my treasures in Heaven and not on the earth, where everything will eventually age, and die....
My eyes are now opened to the truth. GOD is, indeed, good. He doesn't give me what I can't handle, doesn't give me what eventually would do me harm, forgives me and loves me even when I'm not worthy of it. He wants me to follow how He lived his life here on earth-- being of service to the world, because that's where TRUE happiness lies. I also realized that some sufferings are just a form of discipline, to mold us into better human beings. We are rocks, constantly given frictions in life, so we rub off our uneven surfaces and become smoother than baby's skin. Unless we stop making the world as our everything, we will never be happy. Unless we are living a life for others, we will never learn true SATISFACTION.
"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it." [Matthew 16:25]
Such endeavor, focusing on others, is the road less traveled. But I must travel it... I must try to stay in it's path. Let's live a life less ordinary. Impossible? maybe if I lean only on my own capabilities-- but when I lean on HIS, nothing's impossible.
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