Posted on 07/12/2017 10:27:50 PM PDT by Salvation
I have received many requests to republish a post from several years ago. The following five truths from that essay are indeed hard. They rock our world and stab at the heart of some of our most cherished modern notions. If they can be accepted for the truth they convey, however, they bring great peace. These truths are not only good medicine for our collective self-absorption but they also help us to have more realistic expectations as we live out our lives in this imperfect and limited world. Study these truths well. If they irritate you a bit, good; they’re supposed to. They are meant to provoke thought and reassessment.
I did not originate the following five principles, but the commentary is my own. So thank the one to whom the Holy Spirit first spoke them and tolerate my meager commentary.
1. Life is hard. We live in times of comfort and convenience. Medicine has removed a lot of pain and suffering from our lives. Consumer goods are readily available and we have a wide array of choices. Entertainment comes in many varieties and is often inexpensive. Hard labor is something that few of us are familiar with. Obesity is common due to overconsumption and underactivity.
All of these creature comforts have led us to expect that life should always be just peachy. We become outraged at the slightest suffering, inconvenience, or delay.
Our ancestors lived lives that were far more “brutish and short,” to borrow a phrase from Thomas Hobbes. Life was a “vale of tears.” They understood that suffering was a part of life. When we suffer today, we start thinking about lawsuits and who is to blame. Suffering seems obnoxious to us and hard work unreasonable! We are angered and flung into anxiety at the mere threat of suffering.
This principle reminds us that suffering and difficulty are part of life; they should be expected. Accepting suffering does not mean we have to like it. Acceptance of the fact that life will be hard at times means that we get less angry and anxious when it is; we do not lose serenity. In fact, it brings a strange sort of peace. We are freed from unrealistic expectations that merely breed resentment. We also become more grateful for the joys we do experience.
2. Your life is not about you. If you want to make God chuckle, tell Him your plans. If you really want to give him a belly laugh, tell Him His plans! We often like to think that we should just be able to do what ever pleases us and maximizes our “self-actualization.” However, we do not decide alone what course our life will take.
In this age of “nobody tells me what to do,” it is important to remember that our true happiness comes from getting not what we want, but what God wants. Our destiny is not to follow our star; it is to follow God. True peace comes from careful discernment of God’s will for us.
It is sad how few people today ever really speak ahead of time with God about important things like careers, entering into a marriage, or pondering a large project. We just go off and do what we please, expecting God to bail us out if it doesn’t go well. You and I do not exist merely for our own whims; we have a place in God’s plan. We have greater serenity when we discern that place and humbly seek God’s will. Accepting the fact that we are not the masters of our own destiny, not the captains of our own ship, gives us greater peace. It also usually saves us a lot of mileage.
Humbly accepting that our life is not simply about us and what we want is a freeing truth. We often don’t get what we want; if we can allow life to just unfold and not demand that everything be simply the way we want it, we can be more serene and free.
3. You are not in control. Control is something of an illusion. We may have plans for tomorrow but there are many things between now and tomorrow over which we have no control. For example, we cannot even control or guarantee the next beat of our heart. I may think I have tomorrow under control, but tomorrow is not promised; it may never come.
Because we think that we control a few things, we think that we can control many things. Not really. Our attempts to control and manipulate outcomes are comical, sometimes even harmful.
Thinking that we can control things leads us to think that we must control them. This in turn leads to great anxiety and often anger as well.
We usually think that if we are in control we will be less anxious. This is couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, the more we think we can control, the more we try to control, which increases our burdens and anxiety. We end up getting angry because we discover that there many things and people we cannot control after all. This causes frustration and fear.
We would be freer and less anxious if we would simply accept the fact that there are many things—most things, in fact—over which we have no control. Our expectation of everything being under control is unrealistic. Life comes at you fast. Brooding over unpredictable and uncontrollable things amounts to bondage. Simply accepting that we are often not in control is freeing.
4. You are not that important. This one hurts. We often think that the whole world should revolve around us. We think it is only our feelings that matter and our wellbeing that is important. We are loved by God in a very particular way, but that does not change the fact that we must often yield to others who are also loved by God in a very special way.
Sometimes other people are more important than we are. We might even be called upon to give our life so that others may live. We must yield to others whose needs are more crucial than our own. The world doesn’t exist just for us and what we want.
There is great peace and freedom in coming to accept this. We are often made so anxious if we are not recognized while others are, or if our feelings and preferences are not everyone’s priority. Accepting the truth that we are not that important allows us to relax and enjoy caring about other people and celebrating their importance.
5. You are going to die. We get all worked up about what this world dishes out, but just take a walk in a cemetery. Those folks were all worked up too. Now their struggles are over. If they were faithful, they are with God; they are now experiencing that “trouble don’t last always.”
This truth also helps us to do the most important thing: get ready to meet God. So many people spend their lives clowning around and goofing off, ignoring our most urgent priority. In the end, this is freeing because we are loosed from the many excessive and often conflicting demands of the world; we can concentrate on doing the one thing necessary. Our life simplifies and we don’t take this world too seriously because we understand that it is passing away. There is great peace and freedom in coming to accept this.
So there you have them, five hard truths that will set you free. Think about them. Memorize them. Pull them out when life comes at you fast and hard with its agenda of control, self-importance, and empty promises of perfect comfort here on earth. A simple, sober, humble, and focused life brings great serenity.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Finally got this posted. Hooray!
Thanks, I needed that!
The earth goes around the sun. Well, I admit that was a little harder to accept about 500 years ago.
6. Government causes problems - it does not solve them.
Agree with point 1, the other four sound exactly like slavery. No thanks.
Correction, agree with point 1 and 5, the other 3 sound like slavery.
bkmk
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
This is what Bergoglio should be concerning himself with - - not fundamentally transforming the Church.
This is why there is so much suffering in the world. Whose God? Of course you say yours. Others say theirs. You see the problem?
Peace to you always.
Judi
BFL
OMW! This is a brilliant essay. So simple yet eloquent. Thank you, Salvation.
I know I can relate to this one:
We just go off and do what we please, expecting God to bail us out if it doesn’t go well.
I’m puzzled. What do you mean when you say you don’t agree with points 2,3, and 4? Do you really think you’re Important and everything should revolve around you (point 4)? Do you really think you control all the events that take place in your life (point 3)? Do you think you’re smarter than God and know better about what’s good for you than He does (point 2)?
An attitude of resignation leads to poor outcomes.
I am responsible for everything that happens in my life.
Good, bad, or indifferent.
It is called personal responsibility. Come on, I thought conservatives are big on this... :)
Very poignant and yet so simple......gives us all something to think about.
‘Whose’ God? Wrong question.
More like ‘Which’ God. The answer to that is, the God that IS.
Allah is NOT, Buddha is NOT. Flying Spaghetti Monster is NOT.
God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit IS/ARE and guide us daily, IF we’ll listen.
There is nothing in the Bible, about how God tells us to live, (as opposed to the koran) that is detrimental to an individual or to society.
Agree with point 1, the other four sound exactly like slavery. No thanks.
1) One is either a random act of evolution OR one is created by God. Are there any other possibilities?
2) Interesting that your thoughts go to slavery in reading this article. Not mentioned in the article.
3) Why the assumption that slavery is bad? This is cultural. But if you have a good master (or boss in our culture) life is good. The institution of “slavery” can be for good as well as for bad.
4) We are raised in a culture of “rights”, but our founding fathers recognized our rights were from and subject to God. Our culture has lost that part.
5) Regarding Truth and God. There is only one truth, it is not relative. If you think you are a random act of nature, then you are your god and get to define god. If you are a creation of God, then God is God. And it might be important to find out about the true God.
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